This romantic wartime story relates what happens when a New England student leaves his girlfriend to take part in the war in the Far East. After training, he arrives in Burma in the fall in 1944, having first had a strange dream that he will return the following year, when the leaves start to fall The meaning of this dream becomes apparent during his time there as he almost dies of malaria, has a brief liaison with his nurse, is captured by the Japanese, spends many months in a prison camp, working on building roads, culminating, against all the odds, in a memorable trip from prison back to safety. Emaciated, exhausted, almost devoid of any strength, he arrives back in America, just as the first leaves start to fall.