Both a love story and a wartime chronicle, this powerful novel reveals the effects of the Vietnam War on a group of friends living in a small town in Ohio. As the 1970 draft lottery nears, the young men must examine their views of war and consider the fate that awaits them; the young women face the possibility of losing their husbands, boyfriends, and friends. Each member of the group embarks on a personal search that will bring very real and very adult conflict and pain and strip away their youthful naivete. The enormity of this war contrasted with the microcosm of one small town exposes the ambivalence of characters who are at war with themselves.