While serving in the Persian Gulf at Al Bathra, Lt. Colonel Nathanial Serling gives the order to fire at what he believes is an enemy T-54 tank and is horrified to learn that he's destroyed one of his own tanks, killing several of Serling's own men. As the military conducts a hushed investigation into this incident of "friendly fire" Serling is reassigned to a job in Awards and Decorations at the Pentagon and ordered to review Capt. Karen Walden's candidacy for a Medal of Honor, to be awarded to the Medevac pilot for her "courage under fire." The honor, unhappily, is to be posthumous. Expected to expedite the inquiry and rubber-stamp the approval for the Medal, Serling instead finds himself unavoidably drawn into her crew's conflicting stories regarding Walden's actions during a rescue mission. Serling begins to suspect a much more complicated tale, perhaps even a cover-up. In a desperate race against time, he must not only find the truth, but somehow manage to preserve his honor.