Wallace Pindell

Young Henry Randolph has run up gambling debts to Slade and Slade has arrived to collect the money. When Slade tells Henry he will inform his father, Henry threatens him. When Slade is later found murdered, the posse heads out after Henry. Henry claims he is innocent but flees anyway when the posse approaches.

A woman screenwriter lives in a shabby bungalow in order to be near her husband, a 39-year-old newspaper editor who has just joined the army.

The experiences of a disparate group of young men as they make their way through Navy boot camp.