Grant Sterling is 25. A company commander in the U.S. Army, he lost his left leg in an IED attack in Iraq and then was kicked out of the Army under "Don't Ask-Don't Tell." Looking for a plan to rebuild his life, he meets another amputee in rehab at Walter-Reed, who tells him about the Kosovo Liberation Army ("KLA"), a guerrilla insurgency against the Serbian regime of Slobodan Milosevic. Grant decides to write a book about the KLA, in part to rekindle old loves, and in part to escape the humiliation he feels whenever he goes out in public and people notice that he is damaged physically. When he goes to Kosovo to begin his project, he encounters a statue of a fallen young KLA hero, "Arian." Grant becomes obsessed with Arian and plans to make him the focus of his book. He is held back because everyone notices his disability and defines him only as the "one-legged American." Then, as he begins to interview people about the KLA and about Arian, they react strangely. Even Arian's father is staunchly opposed to a book about Arian.Seeking help from the U.S. Embassy, Grant encounters the military attach#65533;, Brad Brookfield, an old boyfriend from college and now a closeted Marine officer. Brad opposes Grant's recklessness and is horrified when Grant becomes convinced that Arian was killed by his own Albanian people because he was gay.Grant perseveres despite Brad's opposition, his disability, and growing threats from some in the Albanian community. Brad is gradually drawn in, especially after he uncovers communications intercepts revealing an unanticipated dark plot.Grant and Brad work together to bring Arian's murderers to justice, uneasy with the possibility of rediscovering their romance. Before they are done, they enlist the help of a few of Arian's fellow KLA soldiers, Arian's sister and her new husband, Dragan, who was a Serbian police commander, and a mysterious young Serbian policeman named Jovan, who is attracted to Grant. Dragan is drinking himself to death because he thinks he killed Arian.Grant and Jovan are attacked by the wrongdoers back in the U.S., who threaten them with mutilation and death.