Both a love story and a war chronicle, this powerful book shows the effects of the Vietnam War on a group of friends living in a small town in Ohio. As the 1970 draft lottery nears, the young men must examine their views of war and consider the fate that awaits them while the women must face the possibility of losing their husbands, boyfriends, and friends. Each member of the group slowly loses his naiveté as each embarks on a personal search that brings very real and very adult conflict and pain. The juxtaposition of the enormity of this war and the microcosm of a simple, small town in Ohio exposes the ambivalence of the characters values who are at war with themselves.