A young Navy veteran, recently graduated from a small state college in Louisiana with a degree in Agriculture, appeals to the senator of his home state for help when his quest for employment in the Foreign Assistance Program is thwarted by one bureaucratic bungle after another. Because of the senator's intervention, he is included in a group of elite interns from some of the most prestigious Business Schools in the country, but is "marked" as a ringer from the outset because his degree in Agriculture "doesn't fit the profile." His fluency in Spanish automatically earmarked him for an assignment to a Latin American post, but halfway through his three-month indoctrination in Washington, he is suddenly reassigned to a highly sensitive position in South Viet Nam in the early 1960's. This further cast an aura of mystery around him that followed him to Saigon where his lack of guile and naivete in navigating the diplomatic channels labeled him a "spook," the buzzword "du jour" for spy. He is quick to see the flaws in the program he has become part of and the big time skimming taking place in the administration of the foreign aid funds. His cries fall on deaf ears and his continued "poking" and "meddling" eventually place him in harm's way leading to several attempts on his life."