The Army assigned four anti-war soldiers to infested Viet Cong territory and expected them to be killed as had happened to the previous team. Instead they survived by befriending the locals in the village of Phan Lac. When a North Vietnamese division makes a surprise attack against a nearby U.S. regiment, these four dissidents despite enormous odds devise a ruse to save fellow Americans and the Vietnamese villagers. The plan was working until the Regiment's commander's helicopter, ignoring radio messages to leave, gets shot down nullifying the effective plan. The four soldiers become more exposed. Faced with certain death, they resort to radical tactics in hopes of saving Americans in the regiment, the villagers, the men in the chopper, and their lives.