The rumblings of war are ominous as A Boy's War begins. Davis's story begins as he enters his harrowing "Rat year" at Virginia Military Institute—not to prepare for war, but simply to continue a tradition among Davis men. But the army soon beckons. Davis's early experiences with wartime bureaucracy include the degradations of mass physical examinations, the rigors of basic training, and the infernal boredom, where "Hurry up and wait" is the ruling maxim.

Picked for the medics, Davis describes his odyssey through a series of camps, his introduction to the ways of the world in Juarez, Mexico, his needlessly secretive, tortuous journey by troopship to India, then across India by train, as he and his fellow soldiers are confined in close quarters for forty-five days without a bath; his stay at his final destination, Burma, and his unit's final assignment to carry out the oppressive task of disinterring the remains of American soldiers.

A Boy's War relates one writer's experience of how luck, fatigue, and fear played leading roles in determining soldiers' fates during a war fought mostly by boys, many of whom like Davis learned far more than they cared to about life and death before reaching voting age.