Soldiers die even on the last day of a war. On the last day of the Vietnam war one of those casualties is Colonel Darby Baxter, a West Point graduate who loved honor more than life. As he lay dying, Baxter pleaded with a State Department employee to save a Vietnamese infant. The woman brings the baby to Elizabeth Pepperhawk along with Darby's field diary and a blackmail demand. Give her three thousand dollars or she will hand the baby over to child welfare. A few hours after Pepper pays the money, Miss Filmore is found dead in Pepper's clinic. Pepper, Avivah Rosen, and Benny Kirkpatrick agree on one thing: Darby lied about the baby. Whose daughter is she? Whose honor is at stake? To answer those questions, they must find out who killed Edith Filmore. How are they going to solve a murder when the clues are halfway around the world? Benny needs money, and he's seriously considering becoming an "executive mercenary," a fancy term that means one thing to Pepper: Benny is going to war again. Violence erupts when a flood of newly arrived Vietnamese refugees stirs dangerous emotions in the local veterans' community. A second person dies, and an ex-Marine is charged with murder. Has Vietnam finally invaded Pepper's North Carolina homestead?