The story begins near the end of World War II in Europe. A soldier, suffering from amnesia, is on a hospital ship being helped by Major Williams, a medical doctor. The soldier was the only one of four infantrymen to survive when Nazi dive-bombers destroyed the farm house they were fighting the Germans from. The soldier and the U.S. Army do not know who he is. This is because when the four men's dog tags were found afterwards, they had been blown off their bodies, and the Army does not know which of the four the surviving soldier is.