In the booming 1950s more people than ever can afford cars not to mention houses packed with the latest labour-saving appliances. But there's a dark side to the decade. While serving with the U.N. forces in the Korean War, Canadian soldier George "Beaver" Nichol becomes aware of a sadistic criminal with whom he continues to cross paths in the ensuing years. The mysterious man, codenamed UFO, spreads pain for profit in such desperate locales as Marice Duplessis' Quebec, Kenya during the Mau Mau insurrection, and Guatemala at the time of the CIA-sponsored coup. First as a soldier, then as a journalist, Beaver tracks the remorseless murderer, concluding, however, that it isn't enough to bear witness. UFO must be stopped, if not by the police, then by an ex-infantryman who knows how to handle himself under fire. The final showdown will take place in France in the context of Algeria's bloody fight for independence.