This story is about a young manas transformation into manhood in WWII by road building in the Central American jungles and bridge building on European battlefields. Along the way, he has his first passionate romance with an eighteen-year-old Polish refugee, Carmen. The story follows Mark Bronson, who leaves his home to work on the malaria-infested Pan American Highway. His year-long romance remains unresolved when he leaves Costa Rica for duty with the combat engineers. During the next three years, he serves with the army engineers in Europe, the Philippines, and Japan. Following the war, he returns to Central America to find Carmen. She has changed and the country is on the verge of a civil war, but he returns to work on the Highway, now the Inter-American Highway, and becomes a military advisor for the insurgents. The storyas unpredictable conclusion will capture the readeras attention to the very end.