Ron Stutzer has a girlfriend. Elizabeth has brains, beauty, money, and a powerful job. But when that job sends her to Beirut, she's taken hostage. She disappears into the rubble and waste and confusion of the Middle East. But what can Ron do? His alcoholic father has just swiped his credit card halfway through a three-week binge. The bees he keeps with his football-friend Jim have gone berserk. His co-workers at the Census Bureau need him. He never understood Elizabeth's intrigues at the Department of Defense anyway. And he and Elizabeth always had a policy of staying out of each other's families. Even when Elizabeth's wealthy influential father pulls all the strings he has, the government still will do nothing-either to help or to interfere. So he turns to Ron: Go to Beirut and rescue Elizabeth, his daughter, Ron's lover. Ron's on his own then, and learns what it means to be a hero.