Imagine the elation of having your dead son brought back to life. That is what Michael Sumner's parents experience when, one year after he's reported killed in action in Vietnam, they are told their son is alive and has escaped from a cadre of Viet Cong. But reunited with his family in their new Florida home, Michael has become a stranger to them, and soon living with him becomes more difficult than having him dead. Attempting to break into his suffering and get him back, fearful he may turn to violence, his parents suspect the worst when a young woman who has befriended Michael abruptly disappears.