When a first-classman's insignia is found on the riverbank near the drowned body of plebe David Hand, the specter of murder casts a shadow of scandal across the U.S. Grant Military Academy. General Hedges, the headmaster of the school, is determined to keep the beleaguered school out of the headlines and attempts to cover-up the likelihood of murder by wielding his considerable influence to pass it off as a simple drowning. This is done in spite of forensic reports that show that, shortly before his death, David Hand participated in "consensual sexual relations" with another man. Letters from the dead boy, which the Army Intelligence Department "confiscates" from his sister's New York apartment, implicate Ry Slaight as the first-classman with whom David was in love. As General Hedges says, "You cannot have a murder without a murderer." He offers Slaight the opportunity to "go quietly" which means he would be washed out into the infantry and quickly bound for Vietnam. Professing his innocence in the matter, Slaight refuses the invitation at which point General Hedges threatens to court-martial him on a point of "honor." Enlisting the aid of Elizabeth Hand, the dead boy's sister, Slaight sets out to find the first-classman with whom her brother was involved -- the first- classman who killed her brother.—Mark Fleetwood <[email protected]>

When a cadet at a military academy is found dead, the assumption is it was an accident. But the autopsy reveals that's not the case and that he's a homosexual and the last person he was with someone before he died and that someone is an academy upperclassman. The commandant wanting to protect the academy's good name tries to keep it quiet and hopefully no one will care about it. But the cadet comes from a prominent family and his father knows it couldn't have been an accident. And his sister knows one of the upper class men who knew his brother. And he learns the truth of her brother's death when he spoke to the academy doctor. Later when the commandant learns of this he orders the man brought to him and tells him to forget what he learned. But he sets out to find out the truth. At the same time the commandant gets some info that might implicate him.—[email protected]