This is an impassioned book, the story of an insurgency in Burma drawn from interviews with those who experienced it. The narrative tells how the writer, Mac McClelland, traveled to Thailand to work as a volunteer with a group called Burma Action, and stayed for several weeks, teaching English.

If the trials of a temporary teacher seem slight as a subject, there is much more to it all than that.

For one thing, the name of both the organization, located near the border at Mae Sot, in what is ostensibly a camp for refugees, and the names of all the participants, have had to be disguised. Burma is now called Myanmar by the military government that runs it, and the liaison group for those who have fled from conflict does not exist, at least under the name of "Burma Action." Those involved have all taken part in the insurgency, or are victims of it, but they are not recognized as refugees in Thailand.