Set at a boys' boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II, A Separate Peace is a harrowing and luminous parable of the dark side of adolescence. Gene is a lonely, introverted intellectual. Phineas is a handsome, taunting, daredevil athlete. What happens between the two friends one summer, like the war itself, banishes the innocence of these boys and their world.
第二次世界大站期间，在美国参战的前夕吉恩和菲尼就读于高中。由于暗中嫉妒菲尼的成就又怀疑菲尼对自己心怀嫉妒，吉恩在不自觉中作下了令自己后悔终身的事。在伤害了朋友的同时他更大地伤害了自己。