Based on a true story about a court-martial and murder, respectively, of two men who are US Marines during and after the Korean War, this tough tale documents events in the life of a sociopath. From his early teens, Joseph Thomas Biway's life is a kaleidoscope of troubles and criminal activities. The reader develops some sympathy for him later after he returns home, faces the death of two of his children, and, subsequently, the dissolution of his marriage and other relationships. His baser actions remain a part of his nature, however. Alcohol abuse exacerbates or possibly anesthetizes him to his cruelty. He is a rapist, a torturer, and a murderer. People are his playthings in ways that are difficult to read due to the sadism that motivates them, but they demonstrate the mindset of a person without a social conscience.

Odell Williams—a former police officer turned Marine, who has joined the Corps after leaving a police department out of frustration with its structure—is a person of conscience. Therefore, he becomes Biway's nemesis. The hatred of the two for each other fuels additional tragedy.

Criminologist Cotten vividly describes some early experiences of Biway's as contributing to his sociopathy: being embarrassed and beaten for an infraction at a Catholic school where he was a student and subsequent punishments at another private school that he attended. Cotten is clearly intrigued by criminal behavior, and helpfully explains to readers that sociopaths are as bewildered by the sympathies and actions of people of conscience as the general population is by sociopaths' lack of conscience and cruel practices. What is more disturbing is when Cotton points out that their actions are committed at times with glee and, at other times, without apparent emotion. The author presents his story in a logical, biographical format.

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