Hollis and Debra have settled into their golden years in a gated community outside of Tucson. Although they are devoted to each other, events that took place decades earlier have left Hollis with a deep-seated trauma - and with a secret he has never been able to share with his wife. When Debra is diagnosed with cancer, she makes her husband a simple request - "Tell me about us" - which forces Hollis to revisit his past.
In 1950, Hollis fought in the Korean War alongside the bigoted but charismatic Bill McCreedy. McCreedy seemed to have it all, although he was a mercurial soldier whose ungovernable behavior was often at odds with what Hollis believed to be right. Now, years later, Hollis is haunted by memories of McCreedy and his own wartime actions which he had tried to suppress. These recollections eventually lead him from the body-strewn battlefields of Korea to the remote farmhouse in Texas where McCreedy had grown up - and for the first time he finds himself examining his and Debra's lives to understand how chance played a hand in bringing them together.
MITCH CULLIN is the author of seven books, including A Slight Trick of the Mind. He lives outside of Tokyo, Japan.