Before the novel’s revision for publication in the United States, it was first published in the Philippines as Watch in the Night in 1953.

In the United States, the renamed novel was printed four times by Avon in New York City.

The novel narrates the story of guerrillas who were unwilling to surrender while awaiting the return of the armed forces of the United States.

During the Japanese occupation period of the Philippines, the manuscript for E. K. Tiempo’s Cry Slaughter!

– among many other literature written by Filipino writers in the English-language – that belongs to the "domain of American writing that spans about a century".