Hoyce and Bess Guthrie are long married Montana ranchers who come to a major crossroads in their lives. An oil company has offered to buy them out and Hoyce wants to sell while Bess hopes to keep the land in the family for future generations.
The Double Deuce is the meanest, loudest and rowdiest bar south of the Mason-Dixon Line, and Dalton has been hired to clean it up. He might not look like much, but the Ph.D.-educated bouncer proves he's more than capable -- busting the heads of troublemakers and turning the roadhouse into a jumping hot-spot. But Dalton's romance with the gorgeous Dr. Clay puts him on the bad side of cutthroat local big shot Brad Wesley.
West Point graduate lieutenant Jeff Knight meets cynicism when taking command of sergeant Michael McNamara's tour veterans platoon in a Vietnamese trench camp. Unlike his predecessor, who hid till the end of his tour, Jeff takes charge, experiences the manual doesn't allow coping with all realities and gets wounded. He returns, now fully respect by men and superiors. Besides the Vietcong, the platoon wrestles with the inscrutable villagers, which the G.I.'s officially protect, but also fear as some collaborate with them, other covertly with the Cong, either way subject to bloody reprisals.
An intelligent pulse of electricity moves from house to house, terrorizing occupants through their own appliances. Having already destroyed one household in a quiet neighborhood, the pulse finds itself in the home of a boy and his divorced father.
