Disinherited by his parents in an effort to force him to give up the woman he loves who is from a different social status, Adam loses his "umbrella" of college, is drafted and winds up in Vietnam. There he learns many valuable lessons about life and death, friendship and survival.

Injured at Khe Sanh, he returns home and must learn to forgive the parents he blames for his being sent to Vietnam, while trying to rebuild his life with Belinda and the son born while he was away.

But as Adam looks toward the future, his past calls to him, sending him into a downward spiral of despair and self-destruction, unable to distinguish the past from the present.