February 1968 - the Chinese New Year. In the Tet offensive, the Vietcong ambush American units across South Vietnam. Back home, the fires of anti-war protest rage. Jim Quint, a reporter for the Honolulu Star Bulletin, goes to cover a luncheon speech by the American commander, Gen. William C. Westmoreland. In a parking lot, Quint meets Vivienne, the beautiful young Vietnamese wife of Col. Del Lambert, scion of a wealthy Hawaiian family and Westmoreland's chief of intelligence in Vietnam. Lambert invites Quint to have dinner at his home, where he orders his wife to strip for Quint. Lambert confides that she knows something that Quint wants. A dangerous, passionate struggle ensues between soldier and war critic, a fight for Vivienne that mirrors the war in Vietnam.