Isaiah Bishop knows the sound of war, the smell of violence, the colour of fear, and the taste of blood. He knows the horror of killing and the tragedy of young men dying. These were the tough lessons impressed upon this inner city high school teacher as he served out his tour of duty in the Vietnam War. Now, more than twenty years after surviving the jungles of Southeast Asia, Bishop finds that the lessons of the bloody and nightmarish conflict on foreign soil are being revisited upon him once again. Yet this time, the battle lines are clearer and closer to home. He is caught in the throes of America’s urban war; the streets of his neighbourhood now are where the contest is being played out.