It's 1974. Vietnam is a recent memory. For Father Damon Keith, reassigned to Quantico, it's a time for new beginnings and familiar challenges. The heroic sacrifice of Navy Chaplain Vincent Capodanno, post-humously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, may be fresh in the American public's mind, but in some quarters a peacetime military chaplaincy is considered expendable. Michael O'Shea, Quantico's top prosecutor and Father Damon's oldest friend, has asked him to instruct his bride-to-be in the faith. At first skeptical, Mia Rodgers is willing to approach Roman Catholicism with an open mind. But within days of Damon's arrival on base, a Woman Marine is found sexually assaulted and murdered, and a Marine chaplain's assistant is placed in custody for the crime. Strange telephone calls seem to implicate someone from Damon's past-or even the priest himself. It's up to NIS Special Agent Harry Reiner, ex-Philly cop, recovering alcoholic and former altar boy, to make sense of it all . . .