"There's been a murder in Chu Lai. After a long day slogging through the boonies, Private Celestine Anderson returned to base, only to come under fire from a group of racist white marines. That was when he finally snapped, and buried his field ax in the skull of one of his tormentors. And the inexperienced O'Connor has been assigned to defend him, in a trial that seems to begin as an open-and-shut case - but ends up pulling O'Connor into the heart of the Vietnam conflict, where bullets overrule books, and death is the only judge of men. This recounting of a true story of brutality and justice continues Charles Henderson's tradition of bringing readers into the heart of the American experience in Vietnam."--BOOK JACKET.