A tale of international love, intrigue, and blood-letting. Lieutenant Luke Maynell, a brilliant and headstrong China scholar, is called up in 1952 for intelligence missions in the Korean War. Alternating between combat in the trenches against the North Korean and Chinese Communist troops fighting the United Nations forces and gory, pitched battles between pro-Communist and anti-Communist factions, he re-encounters two young women whom he had met as a student. As they vie for his heart amid the perils of war, Luke is transformed. He becomes far more sensitive to the human and political dramas pressing upon him and ends up playing a critical role in saving tens of thousands who are, with good reason, terrified of returning to their totalitarian homelands.