The author ejects from his burning Navy jet onto a karst ridge near Hanoi, and what follows is one of the most implausible and heroic rescues of the air-war. The events immediately following carry him to a secret base in Laos and then to a makeshift hospital in Saigon. The larger story, however, is of a man's complex relationship with Vietnam.

It begins in Saigon, where he completes high school and comes to love the Vietnamese people. When he departs for college, he believes he's done with the country. But as a Navy pilot, it's a direct line back.

After he leaves the Navy, Vietnam tightens its grip. Three decades later, he climbs the ridge where he and his flight leader were shot down. He learns his guide's brother was one of the gunners-then she leads him deep into a cave. Later that day, seated at a table in her thatched home, he begins to find reconciliation.