Lt. Col. DePress' name says it all. He is a crestfallen officer on the staff of General MacArthur. DePress was a member of the defeated 26th Cavalry whose members had been forced to eat their horses or face starvation just before the Philippines fell to the Japanese invasion. Colonel DePress is sent to Washington as an office courier for General MacArthur to bring a personal letter from El Supremo congratulating him on his promotion to brigadier general.