It is 1943 and Annie Winston waits at the train station in downtown Opelika, Alabama for the military police to unload what is presumed to be Japanese POWs for internment into Camp Opelika, just outside Pepperell Mill Village. The waiting crowd discovers the soldiers are not Japanese, but German. In the months to follow, Annie finds herself embroiled in a romance with German POW, Gunter Wolff, leading to misunderstanding, mistaken identity, and an ultimate tragedy.

It is 1992 and Chaz Champion has received devastating news. The Pepperell Mill, his pride and joy, has burned to the ground. Upon his tour of the devastation he finds the rusted, disintegrating remnants of an old German dog tag. He sets out to uncover the identity of the person whose tag he holds and with the help of friends, exposes the story of the tag and its tales of forbidden love, murder, and family secrets.

Mill Village mingles the stories of Chaz in 1992 and Annie and Gunter in 1943, taking the reader on a journey both to the past and to far off destinations in the present. Throughout his quest for truth, Chaz learns an important lesson about the preservation of history, family, and friendships.

Based on a true story.