From childhood, Charlton Pierce has to swim up a stream infested with cultural discrimination of the aristocratic society in idyllic Aiden. Like Adam expelled from Eden, the ground Charlton finds allotted to himself yields a variety of thorns and thistles. Charlton falls in love with Brie Devoe, the daughter of an affluent retired military general. The lovers are parted after graduation. Brie goes to Paris where she undergoes a series of Alice in Wonderland metamorphoses. Charlton is drafted and sent to Vietnam where he is catapulted into battles, internal and external. The two have a bittersweet reunion where Charlton is charged with murder. On the eve of his impending execution, Brie is thrust into a state of comatose detachment. The story ends with a surprising twist that foreshadows a promising future.