Kennon is ill-prepared to face the rigors of life as a coastwatcher. Every decision he is forced to make drives him deeper into peril as he becomes embroiled in a turbulent test of wills with his treacherous second-in-command. But when the Japanese Navy invade San Samal to establish a strategic airstrip, Kennon finds himself trapped in enemy territory with the danger rapidly escalating toward the precipice between life and death.