To avoid the gloomy prospect of spending Christmas break alone in New York, Coredale Saxon-White, against his better judgement, finds himself in Hawaii sharing an apartment with the strange and somewhat obnoxious Sol Epstein. While in Hawaii, Coredale receives a troubling phone call from his father that propels him to Saigon in a quest to look for his brother, missing in Vietnam since 1968. It is1975 and Saigon is about to fall, after which, his father fears, the son will be lost forever. Sol too is on a quest, though more as a reluctant and cynical mercenary. He has been enlisted by his fanatic grandmother in a search for Nazis hiding in Australia. Coredale and Sol connect again in Sydney, Coredale having been urgently shipped there from Saigon after being wounded in a helicopter accident.
These two young very different men and the girl who comes to figure in Coredale's life are lost, alien souls. Mistakenly they all become subject to the investigation of the US secret services, personified by a bible besotted, drunk, psychopath, who is "licensed" to kill. A ruthless friend by the name of Jeb. Two of the three will die.