American corporal Brundige is captured in Vietnam and interrogated and then tortured to find out what he has done with the scanner they were testing on a Vietnam village. The Vietnam lieutenant interrogating him tells him that Kong was captured and beheaded as a traitor. This disturbs Brundige as he considered Kong a friend. A kind of mutual respect is struck between Brundige and the Vietnam Lieutenant but higher authorities trust no one and the outcome is tragic.