Sergeant Charles Royal Blackwood, III, after surviving three tours in Vietnam and the loss of his right arm, has returned stateside to his small Florida town on Lake Sybelia. Flashbacks of the war are constant, and yet, Royal tries to move forward with the knowledge of who he once was and who he has become. Though he lives on his own, he is a family man, striving to hold ties with his daughter, stepson, and wife, and these relationships, along with others, secure and complicate his return. One-armed, he teaches himself new ways to paddle a canoe, wield a hammer, turn the crank of an ice cream bucket chilled by ice and rock salt, button a shirt, touch the woman’s hand that rests on his shoulder. Inside the warm and breathless month of August 1971, Royal realizes how his past is permanently pressed into his future.