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In the October 26, 1979 assassination of South Koreas President Park Chung Hee, the conspirators use the firepower from stolen M-16s. Korean CIA Head Lieutenant General Kim Jae Kyu, who guns down Park, has planned the assassination since before the 1972 yushin constitution made Park dictator for life.In 1971, at Osan Air Base, South Korea, a North Korean cell has coerced a ring of G.I.s into a burglary of fifteen Air Force M-16s. Air Force Security Police Sergeant C. B. Coverdale sees that if North Korean infiltrators use them in an attempt on President Park, the M-16s will be construed as a signal from the U.S. to attack a military dictator it disfavors. Toward retrieving the M-16s, he gets help from Barbara Stone, an attorney-reporter for the Overseas Weekly. Issues of racial tension and South Koreas jurisdiction over the G.I. burglars are heightened by the North Korean cells continuing power over the G.I.s.In the 1979-1980 time frame, Stone returns to Korea to cover General Kims court martial--and to fathom the aftermath if Air Force M-16s not recovered in 1972 were used in the assassination.