It investigates and recounts the story of Herman Perry, an African-American World War II soldier assigned to the China-Burma-India theatre of the war. Perry killed a white officer while helping construct the Ledo Road. He subsequently retreated into the Indo-Burmese wilderness and joined a tribe of the headhunting Nagas, successfully joining one village and marrying the fourteen-year-old daughter of one of the tribe members.
It also relates some of the history of the CBI theatre as it pertains to Herman Perry, as well as explores the injustices of the Jim Crow mentality and policies carried out by the military during World War II.
In February 2009, American director Spike Lee purchased the film rights to the book.[5]
