Winter at Monte Cassino is a World War II historical fiction told through the eyes of Lieutenant Patricia Hampton,a member of the U.S. Army Photography Section and a uniquely educated classical historian. She is brought over to Italy by her godfather General Mark Clark to create a visual record of what everyone assumes to be his rapid advance north to liberate Rome after the Allied invasion of Southern Italy in September 1943. It is a story of the conflict that arises as Patricia comes to understand that whereas she sees her job as creating a faithful photographic history of the campaign, her godfather's public relations staff view it only as creating the publicity he needs to get command of the far more important Allied Invasion of France. But in a campaign that goes wrong from the outset Patricia's experience becomes less one of memorializing any military progress than of confronting her own tendency towards misplaced hero worship and wondering whether she ever really knew her godfather at all. Faced with the increasing likelihood of him authorizing the bombing of Monte Cassino Abbey which stands on his intended line of advance, Patricia is forced to decide once and for all whether to believe the words of the man she has idealized for years and says the Abbey is occupied by Germans, or believe the opposing German General who assures the Allies he has no soldiers inside at all. Unsure at first who to believe she goes out and finds the evidence of who is telling the truth for herself. And when she discovers who it is, she must decide whether to passively watch the impending tragedy or to use her camera, the only weapon she has, to somehow prevent it. Part coming of age story this is also an adventure drama as Patricia has to survive an assortment of ordeals in her attempt to somehow save the Abbey and those inside it. But out of tragedy comes some redemption as Patricia seizes her single chance of being a light in the darkness. And she then watches the Abbey burn, just like her we are forced to wonder whether we should reconsider our definitions of who exactly some of the heroes in this part of the war really were.