One main character, John Bingham, was a leader of the liberal Students for Democratic Society who was skilled in manipulating that organization to advance his own ambitions. But he also had a strong sense of justice about civil rights and was a vocal critic of the war in Vietnam. Unlike many other young men of that time, he chose to defy rather than evade the military draft, planning to turn his trial in court as a stage for his eloquent opposition to the war. He calculated that his defiance, trial, and jail term would enhance his stature as the courageous national leader of the leftist movement.

A second main character, Tom O'Brien, enlisted in the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) in college. After graduation, he attended the Infantry Officers Basic School and then earned a Green Beret by completing Special Forces training. He went to Vietnam as a lieutenant and was assigned to a Special Forces unit. As he came to know Vietnam and the Vietnamese, however, his initial belief in the justification of the American involvement in Vietnam began to crumble. He witnessed a complex picture of a corrupt Vietnamese government, a hostile and indifferent Vietnamese public toward America, and the misjudgments of the politicians and military leaders in Washington. All the while, there was endless fighting against Vietcong guerrillas and, later, North Vietnamese regulars. While he was contemptuous of those who protested the war at home, he was critical and angry at his government’s policy toward Vietnam.

The third character, Jane Harris, was ambivalent about the war but was nonetheless deeply affected by it. Her mixed and troubled outlook on the war was accentuated when she was courted by both John and Tom. She favored Tom and agreed to marry him after he returned from combat in Vietnam Jane was working at a foundation in New York when she believed that Tom had been killed during the Tet Offensive. In despair, she called John who was also in New York. They made love and she became pregnant. Shortly after, Jane learned that Tom had survived from near death and would return to the U.S. When Jane told him how she had become pregnant, Tom nevertheless married her. She gave birth to a boy and later she and Tom had their own child, a girl. On the surface, the family led a typically middle class life. Even so, Tom never opened up to Jane about his experience in Vietnam and that caused a deep schism between them. They overcame that only after Tom attended the inauguration of the black wall, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington.

In contrast, after the war Tom and John confronted each other when John emerged from underground. He had been pursued by the FBI who suspected that he was connected to a deadly explosion in New York. He went to see Jane to confess his love for her before turning himself in. Even though the John and Tom fundamentally differed over Vietnam, they grudgingly admitted to themselves that the other had displayed courage in the face of the stormy history of the times. Later, when both were in their forties, Tom and John met by accident at the black wall that is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. They acknowledged each other silently but neither spoke. Tom especially could not forgive those who did not support the men who had fought in Vietnam.

In this story of two men and a woman who suffered in different ways from the war, the novel weaves in realistic episodes in the anti-war movement and the military experience in Vietnam. Although the incidents, organizations, and leaders are borrowed from history, the novel’s characters are entirely the product of the author's imagination. The images of Vietnam is a composite of books, photos, movies, television programs, and conversations with many who served in Vietnam.

In particular, the author asked three colonels who had served as junior officers in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive to read parts of the manuscript rewritten into English. They all approved of the accuracy of the combat scenes. In addition, the author’s husband, who is an American, served in the infantry is that period and has checked the manuscript for accuracy.

As for the anti-war movement, the author was a graduate student at Columbia University at the height of that movement and personally witnessed protests, demonstrations, and violence there.

This novel was originally published in Japanese as "Kuroi Kabe" (The Black Wall) in Tokyo in 1990. This version in English is not a translation but a completely rewritten adaptation from the Japanese.