Former college football coach and Promise Keepers founder Bill McCartney tells about a man named Ivan who is a Vietnam veteran. Ivan lives in Denver, and his life is in ruins because of something that happened three decades ago.

While in Vietnam, Ivan's squad befriended some Vietnamese village children who would visit the men daily to peddle candy. Ivan became friendly—no, paternal—with a little seven-year-old girl named Kim. He picked her up and whirled her around. He held her on his lap. He told her he loved her.

Then one day Kim was used by the Vietcong as a kamikaze. She showed up alone at the soldiers' camp, wired with explosives. But before she got too close, she unbuttoned her blouse to show the soldiers the bomb. It was her way of telling the Americans she would kill them if they allowed her to come any closer. Ivan was one of the men who shot her.

As McCartney puts it, "This guy is in pure torment over what he did that day. He can't receive what Kim offered. His life! She gave her life so he could live."