This novel by Xuan Duc based on a real serious case that happened in Quang Tri province and Military Region 4. The fate of the main character in the story posed a problem of great tragedy of a whole era in a special land. Hien Luong - Ben Hai - the river at the 17th parallel that divided Vietnam into North and South, was under the terrible pressure of the historical confrontation. The author did not describe the weapon confrontation, but leaded readers into another tragedy: the ideological confrontation that had pushed a gentle, simple person to become an unrecognized person, living a lonely life in his own homeland, eventually becoming a criminal who received the death penalty. The book made a big splash in Vietnamese literature in the 80s of the 20th century.