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An entire lifetime can be lived in a moment—an hourglass of memories as numerous as the grains of sand it holds; memories too vividly destructive for the thin glass to contain, shattering it to pieces on the grimy floor of the local grocery store. This is the mystery of Sid, a hard-talker born in the harshest of circumstances, who learns to trust implicitly in his uncanny ability to read people and situations in order to survive. Desperate to escape a brutal past, Sid and his mate enlist in the United States Marine Corps; the USMC, otherwise known as Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children. The Marines become his new family, but no family is perfect, and the Marines is no cakewalk. Does he have the foundation needed to survive Afghanistan and the horrors of kill or be killed? And when he has stared into the face of the enemy and pulled the trigger, what then? After the blood-pumping roar of adrenaline and fear and rage…

There is always a price to pay for the taking of lives.

When the Marines are finished with him, there is still no place for Sid, no triumphant homecoming, and confusion becomes disorientation; loneliness turns to isolation; despair turns to depression; emptiness turns into rage as his traumatic past creates a lifetime of pain.