Up-and-coming airline pilot Shin Kazama gets tricked into signing up by his “friend†Satoru Kanzaki. Facing execution for deserting from Area 88, Shin reluctantly turns into a fighter pilot and attempts to serve his three year contract out. Area 88 attracts all kinds of people with all kinds of assorted and often sordid pasts. Among the other mercenaries are Mick Simon, an American who couldn’t adjust to normal life after his tour of duty in the Vietnam War. Mick becomes Shin’s best friend at Area 88. There are only three ways to leave Area 88: Survive three years, buy out your contract for one and a half million dollars or desertion. With each enemy plane brought down, Shin faces his shifting acceptance of the violence and killing that fills every day, as well as suppressing his feelings of wrong-doing.