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Lies come in three forms: lies that we told, lies told to us, and truths left untold. In Lies From The Past: A Viet Nam Tale, retired oilman David Canfil is deeply impacted by all three kinds, as he confronts both terminal cancer and his own extraordinary wealth. A wounded warrior in the Viet Nam War, David was left with a missing leg and disfiguring shrapnel scars. A cutting-edge robotic prosthesis and a demanding career in Dallas have afforded him some measure of distraction from his inner suffering.
Keeping his cancer a secret, David organizes a reunion of his war buddies, and they visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. While visiting “The Wall”, a dramatic sequence of events propels the band of brothers to David's LearJet, which takes them to Hanoi, now called Ho Chi Minh City. Each man has his own personal quest: the quantum physicist, Kevin, hopes to reunite with his Vietnamese bride in Dalat, and the university professor, Macon, needs to defend his position on war and promote his new book. The homeless junkie, Dalton, must defy his demons, but the holistic healer, Pham, just simply wants to go home. David's dying wish is to find his dear love Maggie, the photojournalist whom he thought had died.
Their adventures in modern-day Vietnam range from spiritual epiphany to science fiction; including time travel and discovery of Buddhist enlightenment. The cosmic consequences of all the lies embroil everyone into a dangerous dilemma with an aging Catholic nun and a cowboy from West Texas.