Linc comes to the airport to meet a friend who is returning from Vietnam, only to learn that he was killed by a sniper on the day he was supposed to go home. Suspicious of the story of how his friend died, he wonders if any of the four other servicemen in his unit who have returned know more than they are telling.

The head of a local campus ROTC is murdered, and the main suspect is the man's mentally disabled teenage son, whom he had frequently beaten. However, Pete and Linc, who have befriended the youth, believe he is innocent.