A collection of previously published and new short stories by author Martin Roy Hill. In the title story, "Duty," a Cold War soldier faces the prospect of starting WWIII. In "Something Far Away," a former Coastguardsman must face his ghosts from the past. A Navy investigator faces a different kind of ghost aboard a nuclear aircraft carrier in "Destroyer Turns." "Brandenberg's Diaries" tells the story of a retired spy's last mission during Glasnost. A group of soldiers faces the curse of war over several generations in "The Stragglers." And in "The Use of Innocence," a Vietnam vet contemplates a younger generation eager for another war.