At the age of 24, in 1968, Dang Thuy Tram volunteered as a doctor in a Viet Cong battlefield hospital in the Quang Ngai Province. Two years later she was killed by American forces. Her diary speaks poignantly of her devotion to family and friends, the horrors of war, her yearning for her high school sweetheart, and her struggle to prove her loyalty to her country. At times raw, at times lyrical and youthfully sentimental, her voice transcends cultures to speak of her dignity and compassion and of her challenges in the face of the war's ceaseless fury. The American officer who discovered the diary was under orders to destroy all documents without military value. As he was about to toss it into the flames, his Vietnamese translator said to him, "Don't burn this one--it has fire in it already." 35 years later, it was returned home.