When his plane is shot down and he is trapped behind enemy lines, he is helped by kind French citizens to escape and get back to his home.
He was a bomber pilot in real life and was shot down behind enemy lines, much like the main character in the novel.
He's one of the best fliers, facing Hitler's Luftwaffe in the war-torn skies above Northern France, but when his plane is shot down on a mission behind enemy lines, Henry finds himself on a whole new battlefield.
Wounded, hungry, and afraid, he struggles toward freedom on foot, relying on the kindness and cunning of the French Resistance to reach the next town alive.
Yet even as Henry struggles a lot for his own survival in a hostile country, he quickly grows to realize the great peril that surrounds all the French people, and to admire the strength and determination of the freedom fighters who risk death to protect him.