As he is arrested by the state police on an island in New England, a man born as Ferdinand Waldo Demara, but known by many other identities, recalls the events that brought him to this point.

When his lie is detected, Demara, facing military jail time, fakes his suicide and hides out in a monastery, applying to become a Trappist monk.

After falling in love with an RCN nurse, Catherine Lacey, Demara is assigned to a destroyer as the ship's doctor bound for the war in Korea.

As a court-martial looms, Nurse Lacey, the ship's captain, and others who have seen Demara's good side vow to testify on his behalf, feeding an already heavy media frenzy.

Weighing potential disrepute reflecting on the Royal Canadian Navy against his stellar RCN service, the board of inquiry instead gives him a swift, under-the-radar general discharge.

...Suffice it to say that Mr. Curtis, running this gamut of adventures, seriously as well as with a wink, contributes the necessary light touch that makes palatable this derring-do based on factual data.