It's 1967. The world is rocking, and Neil is growing up fast.

I have this annoying problem that gives me a lot of trouble- a conscience.

Neil Bridges attends a Catholic boys' school in which teachers rule with iron fists and thick leather straps. Some crumble under the pressure but Neil toughs it out, just as his Vietnam-bound older brother has done before him. He has to be a man, after all. But at sixteen, how can he be sure of himself when he's not sure of anything else? He loses a friend and finds another, falls in love and unwittingly treads a path that leads to revenge and possibly murder . . .