The author introduces the reader to James Howard Williams, also known as Elephant Bill, “a World War II legend” (xi). Williams rightfully earns his legendary status, as well as his nickname, by training a group of elephants to assist in Allied efforts during the war: “The work of elephants, it turned out, was vital to troop movement” (xi). The giant animals could clear the landscape, help in bridge building, and haul supplies and people. They are instrumental in defeating the Japanese in Southeast Asia, particularly Burma.

The story, however, is more than one of wartime strategy. As much as Williams is responsible for training the elephants, he claims that he learned more from the animals than they ever could from him, as “he discovered in them the virtues he would work to develop in himself: courage, loyalty, the ability to trust (and the good sense to know when to be distrustful), fairness, patience, diligence, kindness, and humor” (xii). Devoted to his elephants, Williams not only works with his tusker wards but also deeply loves them.

It is monsoon season in northwest Burma, where Williams works for the Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation. He has taken ill, shivering with fever and barely conscious.