A reclusive Vietnam War hero, a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor, falls in love with a young woman, unaware that she is his biological daughter. A loner, wounded both in body and in soul, Ray is attracted to Joy because she reminds him so much of the woman who was once his high school sweetheart, and who wrote him the fateful "Dear John" letter to Vietnam that sets the wheels of this spellbinding novel in motion.
That woman, Ursula, who dumped Ray during the war (for another man), and never revealed to him that he has fathered a daughter with her, is seeking revenge now. In her way stands a novice private eye, Gideon, a former commander of an elite Israeli paratroops unit and a Mossad secret agent, whose persistent search for Ray (on behalf of Joy) enables the father and daughter to unite. At the end though, Gideon is left alone to deal with the shocking, terrible aftermath, bringing to it a measure of justice.