Fallen Angels is the story of Richard Perry, an intelligent but impoverished high school graduate who, unable to afford higher education, enlists in the U.S. Army just before the inception of the Vietnam War. Perry's experience in Vietnam is rendered in vivid, often gruesome detail. He recounts unflinchingly tales of American military atrocities alongside records of guerilla brutality and the grinding mental and emotional pain of combat fatigue. The novel is noteworthy for its heavy use of profanity and for its frank account of the wartime experience.