Eleanor Driscoll, a seventeen-year-old girl, has been horribly burned in a restaurant fire that took the lives of more than four hundred people, including her father. Many people turn away from her face; others make cruel comments. But there are a few special people who look beyond the scars and see the real Eleanor. She has a hard time accepting their friendship. The only person in the world she feels comfortable with is someone she has never met, someone who knows nothing about the scars on her face: Robert Bettencourt. Writing to Robert began as an assignment from her English teacher. "Write to a soldier, " Sister Agnes said. It is World War II. Fate assigns her to Robert, who thinks she is warm and bright and funny. But she is afraid to trust him with the truth. Eleanor eventually discovers that the fire may have destroyed her face and body, but it cannot destroy the person she is inside.