The Korean War, in which the action of this novel takes place,was fought from 1950 to 1953. The geography of Korea and the sort of fighting that took place there were then familiar matters.Jet fighters were newly operational and the first combat between them occurred when pilots and planes from the Soviet Union were sent to support the communist armies of China and North Korea. They were opposed mainly by United States jets.

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Captain Cleve Connell arrives in Korea with a single goal: to become an ace, one of that elite fraternity of jet pilots who have downed five MiGs. But as other airmen rack up kill after kill - sometimes under dubious circumstances - Cleve's luck runs bad. Other pilots question his guts. Cleve comes to question himself.And then in one icy instant 40,000 feet above the Yalu River, his luck changes forever. Filled with courage and despair,eerie beauty and corrosive rivalry,James Salter's luminous first novel is a landmark masterpiece in the literature of war.