John McCain

The book opens in 1998 at the dedication of the National Prisoner of War Museum in Anderson, Georgia. There, former Attorney General Griffin Bell, a Democrat, introduced Republican Senator John McCain, the event's featured speaker, by praising him as a real hero of the present day, a man for those who ask where America's heroes have gone.

Robert Timberg's biography traces McCain's life from a boisterous boyhood through his pranks as a midshipman at the U.S. Naval Academy. It then turns to his harrowing years as a Navy combat pilot shot down over Vietnam, where he spent five and a half years as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese.

Timberg gives the most attention to what came after the war, following McCain's transformation into one of the nation's most respected political figures and a strong contender for the presidency.