In response to the developments in the Kosovo Province in 1999, NATO launched a series of air raids against Serbia. After several weeks of bombing, NATO decided it was imperative to install a ground-based radar system under top-priority conditions and neighboring Romania was deemed the ideal location. The Romanian government dutifully accommodated the request, and on the very next day a radar system was shipped over from Turkey to the harbor of Constanta. The radar was then loaded onto a train guarded by soldiers of the American special troops and Romanian conscripts, and scheduled to reach the opposite end of the country, which is the Serbian border. Because of "the exceptional situation", there was no time for obtaining any legal customs document to account for the transport.

Soon after having reached Romania, the Americans face the first obstacle: the vehicle of their voyage is not yet in functioning condition, and the Romanians seem more intent on welcoming them with a brass band playing the national anthem, then a working train. Once the situation is resolved, they carry on through the Baragan, the Romanian flood-plain of the river Danube. Along their course is the prototypical Romanian village of Capalnita, where the railroad station master is involved in reselling goods stolen off freight trains, where Gypsies steal coal by pretending to "clean" the train carriages and where the ball bearings factory workers have just gone on strike again.

Little do the Americans know that Doiaru, the railroad station master is about to bring their train to a grinding halt. He invokes the lack of customs documents, ignores the free-passage statute granted by the government and refuses to be coerced into it.

The language barrier first surfaces as a major issue (much is lost in translation), as does the average Romanian's attitude towards Americans, ranging from great elation (in hopes of financial or marital bliss) to profound disapproval and hatred. However, all hard feelings, together with the troops' anxiousness to be on their way, seem to be appeased by the mayor's invitation to the village celebration.

The party turns out a great success - most of the soldiers hit it off from the get-go with a lot of the eager Romanian teenage girls. Doiaru's daughter, Monica, who had earlier tried to escape the village by getting on the radar train and ended up bumping into David, one of the soldiers, sees her Prince Charming at the party. Despite the fact that she speaks no English, she flirts and dances with David. To the jealousy of her enamored class-mate Andrei, there is obvious chemistry between the two. Meanwhile, Captain Jones himself tries to convince Doiaru to let the train pass, but is only met with the latter's profuse scorn against the violent, intrusive and self-righteous American foreign affairs policy.

The following day Monica asks Andrei, who speaks good English, to tutor her and then chaperone on her date with David. They later attend the street-party thrown by the mayor's son and Monica's obnoxious ex-boyfriend. David and Monica, while in the throes of love-making, cause a chain reaction of fabulous proportions which leads to a power black-out all the way to Bucharest and to the explosion of a WWII American missile, buried in the basement of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Meanwhile, Jones and the rest of the troops have been partying with the mayor. As day breaks over the hung-over assembly, the mayor discloses his plan to get rid of Doiaru to Captain Jones.

Doiaru fiercely opposes the relationship between his daughter ad the American soldiers and still refuses to budge in respect with letting the Americans go, despite the pleas from Jones himself, who even attempts getting on the man's good side. However, when Jones' impassioned speech manages to rally up the villagers against him, Doiaru ends up being killed in an ambush, stabbed by none other than his deputy. The American soldiers finally leave, amidst an ocean of tears on the part of their dejected teenage lovers. Monica, however, bravely decides to sever all ties with David.

Jones and his troops reach their destination and the radar is made operational two hours after the cease-fire had been declared in Kosovo. "______________________________________http://www.californiadreaminendless.com/story. html