In love, and hoping to avoid the draft, Atticus and Noel secretly marry at City Hall. Their happiness is interrupted by a fateful letter from the Selective Service; the forces-at-play have ordered Atticus to report for active duty. The night before Atticus departs, he picks up a six-pack at the corner liquor store. He blurts his fate to Wally, the owner, who attempts to console him. Wally says he'd also been drafted and served as a combat Marine in World War II...but, in the middle of his story, he drifts into a trance. He recovers, peers deep into Atticus eyes, sees something, but refuses to say what it was. In the morning, Atticus reluctantly takes a train to the Selective Service Center. Like Wally, he is inducted into the Marine Corps. At the MCRD in San Diego, he is nicknamed "Mr. Attitude" by a boot camp drill instructor, and it sticks. Mr. Attitude becomes convinced information about "his attitude" is following him from duty station to duty station. The warnings about his behavior plague him and his actions get worse. Finally, at Camp Lejeune, Captain Dristan puts him on quota for Vietnam. Noel is hurt when she learns he is going to war. Attitude realizes too late he could have behaved and served the rest of his enlistment in the States, but he rationalizes, Vietnam is his destiny. En route to Vietnam, Attitude bonds with Fang, another Marine from Camp Lejeune. In Okinawa, he clashes with a psycho Marine returning from Vietnam who everyone fears. Attitude and Fang receive orders that take them to the Message Center at a dreary outpost in Dong Ha. Later, Attitude receives extra training to become top NCO at the Phu Bai Message Center. Shortly thereafter, however, he follows the correct procedure and embarrasses the new MC Chief, Sgt. Hassle, who retaliates by promoting another Marine ahead of him. Like a story about kismet that Attitude read as a child, he has crossed paths with a man destined to become intertwined with his fate. As if a string of bad luck has begun to unwind, Noel sends Attitude a "Dear John" letter telling him she "wants more out of life." Sgt. Hassle begins to send Attitude into the fighting whenever possible. Attitude learns war has long boring time intervals but when the spark ignites, it flames up fast, chaotically and unpredictably. Death is random. Sometimes it comes in bunches. Hoping to salvage his marriage, Attitude asks Noel to meet him on R&R in Hawaii. She rejects the invitation; he sees no chance for reconciliation and takes his R&R in Hong Kong. While there, he has a torrid but star-crossed affair with Suzy Lam ah King. Afterwards, on a battalion sweep into the DMZ, he endures the trauma of losing buddies, including a gunnery sgt. he thought he had saved. During Attitude's last weeks in Vietnam, he is tormented by nightmares and the loss of friends. For him, leaving Vietnam is eerie and unreal. He's unsure of his future. His wife wants a divorce, he has a job he does not like and he has to move back in with his parents. Upon his arrival, his family greets him warmly, but they see him as aloof and worry about him. From his perspective, the world he once knew has changed. Time passes. Atticus doesn't "fit in". The instincts that helped him survive the physical aspect of war don't help him face its psychological aftermath. After months of aimless wandering in a sea of anti-Vietnam War sentiment, he remembers Wally, a kindred Marine from a previous war. If anyone can set him straight...
