American soldier Robert Jackson joined the army to earn tuition for college; he wanted only to settle down with his high school sweetheart and start a family. He came to Bosnia to help the U.N. forces keep the peace -- only to find that there was no peace to keep. The U.N. arms embargo has left the Muslims defenseless to attacks by Serbs, the Muslim-Croat alliance is shaky at best, and the Serbs are slowly but surely "cleansing" the town of Bosia of Muslims and Croats -- leaving a horrifying death-toll in their wake. Frustrated by his inability to help the Bosnian people, Jackson begins running guns with a band of Muslim students. He is soon caught by the army, and runs off with his young cohorts to avoid standing trial -- losing forever his dreams of peace and prosperity with his love.
"Colonel" Samuel West is sent to Jackson by a trusted benefactor with a mission that West says could "end the war." He needs Jackson to lead him through dangerous northern territory -- and that's where their hellish adventure begins. Stopping for supplies in the wrong town at the wrong time leaves Jackson and West prisoners of the Serbian Chetniks, beginning them on a harrowing journey that leads through the most devastated towns, into a Serbian concentration camp, through the falling city of Jacje, and finally, Jackson hopes, to freedom at the end of a long and dangerous refugee trail.
