p Dieter Koob, a fourteen-year-old German youth at the end of World War II, finds adventure on two continents as a newly inducted French legionnaire. He comes of age by surviving eight years of military campaigns in French Indochina against the ruthlessly savage Viet Minh.pp Dieter's unique ordeal is lush with adventure and mystery as he grows into manhood. He successfully evades capture by the communists at the fall of the historic battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, only to be taken as property of a Laotian village chieftain for fourteen years.pp Upon earning his release from the remote mountain village, he struggles to return to civilization and an unknown, uncertain future.ppbrppbrp