Bill Meechum is one of nature's hard cases, an ace marine fighter pilot so adept at his lethal trade that they call him The Great Santini. But now it's peacetime, 1962. More at home playing 'top gun' in the cockpit than playing father in his own living room, he's become that most useless of all figures: a warrior without a war. Based on Pat Conroy's best-selling autobiographical novel, Meechum's battleground is the family home, with his objective to mold his oldest son in his own rigid image.