A former enlisted man fresh out of flying school, Lieutenant Cassada is the latest arrival in a complacent Air Force squadron in Cold War Germany. From the outset, several characteristics alienate Cassada from the tightly-knit group of men he joins: his mysterious reticence, his Puerto Rican birth, and - most damning of all - his unabashed ambition. In the absence of warfare, Cassada struggles to prove his superiority as a pilot on routine flying procedures, one of which leads to the central tragedy of the novel. Brilliantly paced and haunting, the novel explores the tensions in a group of fighter pilots as much in conflict with themselves as with the enemy.