Unbeknownst to Alan, he is tracing a path through events that were initiated years before, in 1969, by American veteran Archer Cole, who deserts the army rather than return to Vietnam and flees to Canada. Archer seeks shelter in Invermere, B.C., where he is given refuge by Alan’s grandfather and tries to build a new life from the ashes of his old one. Together with his daughter, Linnea, he regrettably—though not altogether unwillingly—sets in motion the events that will shatter two families and unleash a cycle of violence and longing that come to a climax decades later.
Ballistics looks at the bonds that tie a family together; it looks at the relationship between sons and fathers, real and surrogate, and the wounds that can linger for generations when that relationship is betrayed.
