In 1967 during the war in Vietnam, disillusioned free-lance journalist Adam Berg tries to change his life by going to work for an American military deserter. He enters a world of prostitution, drugs and a serial killer of young women on the loose in Saigon Berg befriends a wily Vietnamese detective who is tracking the killer and seeks the journalist's help to find him. Falling in love with a prostitute, Berg becomes addicted to opium, using it to help him escape his new reality. Berg and his detective friend hunt the killer pursuing justice. The result is a dramatic, powerful and surprising climax in a novel filled with many aspects of life in Vietnam during the war.