Vignettes illustrated by professional photographs capture a special era after World War II when history changed gears and shifted into overdrive. Funny, poignant, absurd and sometimes prophetic, they highlight passing scenery and odd encounters along the way, such as a chance meeting with Hitler's last general; life in the Park Hotel with the first Special Forces; a photo assignment in the Holy Land; visits with a Chinese foster daughter; a jungle walk in Cambodia before the Killing Fields massacres; the Soviet Union when Stalin and Lenin lay side by side in the Kremlin; and Elia Kazan directing a movie in the Bavarian Alps.