Northwest France. August 1918. Seven American airmen of A Flight of the 15th Pursuit Squadron are "on loan" to the British, sent to fly and fight over the Western Front. Their life expectancy is measured in days and their mission becomes survival. Images of glory and glamour and honor fill the heads of the airmen as they arrive in France after months of marching and drilling and training. All too soon, piercing bullets and airplanes falling out of the sky shatter their grand illusions as the reality of their new world becomes evident. Though the pilots are united in their deadly struggle against the enemy above, on the ground each man deals in his own way with the horrors of aerial combat-and the uncertainties of the Sopwith Camel, the outdated airplane in which the airmen must fly into battle.