There are many "D days" and "H hours" in a war. Set against some vast and seemingly cosmic clock, these innocuous letters--so insignificant in their apparent power--announce the precise day and exact hour when desperate men will be caught up in a deadly drama.

Later, when war's dreadful vocation is complete, some will come home to final resting places immaculately maintained while others--perhaps less fortunate--will find themselves in a veterans' administration hospital to recuperate, to heal their physical and emotional scars, and, once again, to make some small claim on life. Such is the story of one sailor who came home during the Vietnam War in the late 1960s and the teacher who saved his soul.