Paul Slater, whether he know it or not, lives by the book. Once a Green Beret sniper in Southeast Asia, he has done his best to fit into everyday life back home. He married his childhood sweetheart, lives in the house in Furnass where he grew up, works as a pattern maker at his hometown steel mill. But reports of the collapse of the Vietnam War triggers his feelings of futility and drives him to look for he doesn't know what in nearby Pittsburgh...