This novel is an evocative and emotional portrayal of the controversial, almost forgotten, chapter of the Philippine-American War, the Balangiga massacre.
A remorseful Felipe mulls over his past. He narrates his ambivalent roles during those difficult times. Working as a houseboy in the main barracks of Company C, he was tipped by his Filipino friends about a plot to massacre the Americans, but he did nothing to alert Sir Tom Connell, the garrison commander. During the attack, he and Francisco, another Filipino houseboy in the Officers' quarters, fought with the American soldiers against the Filipinos. They survived and fled with the remaining soldiers to Basey.
Felipe was back in his hometown. His older brother Victor, an insurrecto, took him to the Sohoton camps. The Marines under Major Waller arrived in Basey to carry out the "Kill and burn" order of Gen. Smith. When the Americans stormed and captured the base, Felipe fought with the insurrectos. Victor and other insurrectos disguised as cargadores infiltrated Waller's mission to march, explore and possibly string a telephone line from Lanang to Basey. But the mission failed, eleven Marines perished in the forbidding jungles of Samar, partly to blame was the obstinate attitude and mutiny of the cargadores. While it was a failure for Waller, so it was for Victor. Waller foiled an attempt on his life in the jungle; Victor the would-be assassin. Waller ordered Victor's execution and ten other cargadores. Weeks earlier, Major Glenn, in Waller's absence, had executed the town officials implicated in a plot to carry out another Balangiga-like massacre on the Basey garrison. It was the peak of the brutal campaign to turn theinterior of Samar into a "howling wilderness." Not only would ghosts come back to haunt everyone; so would feelings of guilt and shame that mired these unfortunate events in controversy.