Cynical and world-weary, Crow's a pilot and a drifter. His skills honed flying helicopter gunships, he now earns a precarious living, ferrying relief supplies to refugee camps along Pakistan's north-west frontier. Until the arrival of a local resistance leader with a very lucrative job offer. All Crow has to do is airlift a critically ill Mujahideen field commander to hospital in Peshawar. Nothing to it, save for one slight snag. The pick-up point lies across the Durand Line, deep in Afghanistan. And there's a war on. But there's no denying the money's good and so, against his better judgement, Crow accepts the contract. The flight in proves remarkably easy; too easy, in fact. And when an unexpected welcoming committee turns his helicopter into a heap of charred metal, Crow finds his exit plan severely compromised. The only way out is on foot. Beset on all sides by bandits, Afghan warlords, heroin smugglers and Soviet Special Forces, Crow makes his run for the border. And that's only the beginning...