Cy Corbett relished the excitement and adrenalin rush of early flight. He experienced sixteen forced landings and one serious crash, but considered himself lucky: several fellow cadets were killed or seriously maimed. And through this, he learned that his Irish Melancholy–his Depression–seemed to vanish while he was in flight.

The book begins with student’s contemporaneous journal entries debating the merits of his country going to war alongside an old enemy–Britain. After being drafted, the author joins the most perilous of services, the Army Air Corps. After earning his wings, and finally en route to his scheduled deployment overseas, Cy found himself in a train car waking to shouts and celebrating in the streets. The Armistice had been declared. The war was suddenly over.

Returning home to a mundane civilian life was filled with confusion, disarray, death of his mother, and finally, near the end, a ray of hope for the future.