The past has legs, and it's running Gabe down. His life before the war is only three years removed, but it feels like decades. The war cast a sudden dividing line between the guy he used to be and the mess he has become. The old version-the happy, well-adjusted guy without blood on his hands-is gone forever. It shouldn't have turned out like this. Gabriel Flynn is a surgeon, he went to Iraq to save lives-not take them. Now Gabe is home from Iraq. He's been maintaining a facade of normalcy, but it's starting to crumble. Desperate for help, he turns to obituary writer Tess Casey-the widow of a soldier he let die. Maybe if she forgives him, he can finally leave the war behind and move on with his life. But things are never as easy as Gabe hopes."