When fourteen-year-old Jack Elliot flees Minnesota after killing a man in a whorehouse, he never expects to find himself in France, hunkered down in a trench as World War I rages around him. Ever resilient, Jack transitions from an ambulance driver at Verdun to become one of the few American volunteers to fly in a French fighter squadron. Jousting with German aces in flimsy wood and canvas "aeroplanes" during the day is hard enough for the inexperienced Jack without the additional pressure of having to match the bacchanalian excesses of his squadron mates at night, all while staying one step...