Facing a team of determined Viet Cong insurgents, American infantrymen struggle to acquit themselves honorably. Fate pushes Lieutenant Van Howe into the Vietnam War, and luck, or lack of it, leads him to Ben Tre, a city in the Mekong Delta. Destined to serve in combat operations as as advisor to a South Vietnamese battalion, he is a key player in a cat and mouse conflict with a team of crafty and experienced Viet Cong fighters. As he struggles to stay alive he is plagued by deep angst and conflict over the war. With the tension building, Van Howe and his partner, Sergeant First Class Bradford, face a life and death shoot out with their adversaries.