Nineteen-year-old Sebastien Ranes spends his days knocking around Eagle River, Alaska, and his nights working as a janitor. His girlfriend’s father hates him and his own parents’ opinion of him isn’t much better.

Broke and down on his luck, Sebastien robs a grocery store, making off with nearly $4,000. His image is all over the television within hours, but before Sebastien can be arrested, a drunk driver smashes into his Jeep in the middle of town. Things couldn’t get much worse until a Marine recruiter who witnesses the accident gives Sebastien a ride home…and a way out.

Embarking on an unexpected journey, the Marine Corps shows Sebastien another world—of abuse and authority, of war and compassion, of lust and consequences—and by the time he returns home, he’ll be forever changed.