At the end of World War II, a series of courts-martial probed the infamous events at a U.S. Army replacement depot near Lichfield, England, a compound of buildings that gave off a Dickensian gloom, characterized by The Stars and Stripes as "a concentration camp run by Americans for American soldiers." As a young lieutenant on leave in London, the author attended the first sessions of a military trial that could rival in dramatic intensity such films as A Few Good Men.

Forty years later, after extensive research and interviews, Jack Gieck tells this story of low courtroom schemes and high moral inquiry, a clash between strong personalities and stronger principles that intrigued him then and will fascinate the reader today.