The time is the 1960's. Karl stuns his respected, upper-middle class family when he is arrested for drugs and assaulting a police officer. In court-ordered therapy he meets Katherine and they quickly become lovers. Katherine's honesty, vulnerability, and her wanting something real frighten Karl. Reeling from emotional turmoil, he enlists in the army and requests Vietnam, where he looks to unleash his inner chaos, and leave his mark. Karl returns home to Brooklyn after two reenlistments, decorated twice for bravery, possessed by the hopeful belief that he has undergone a transformation. But he has brought the war home with him and wherever he turns he encounters his damaged self. Anxious, unpredictable, living in continual warfare, Karl, desperate to live, reaches for something real.