The Tides of War is about two men, Lenny Dawson and Frank Billups. Lenny is a teenager and Frank is his Sunday school teacher. Unusual circumstance bring them together again during WW II flying B-17 bombers. Their trials and exploits during WWII bring both to Germany after they are shot down. They pass themselves off as German citizens and are taken into the German Luftwaffe. Both hope to return to their base in England by flying away in a German plane. While in Germany both meet German women and a love story develops for both. The Luftwaffe quickly learn that they are superb pilots and they are promoted and sent to the eastern front where they engage the Russians. Both eventually fly a plane back to England before the war ends. Dawson is reassigned with his American unit and is shot down once more over Germany near the end of the war. He is put in a German prison that the Russians later capture. He is then sent to Siberia where he makes a daring escape nearly two years after his captured. Billups' service with the Luftwaffe is discovered by the CIA and they want to charge him with treason. Only his commanding general is able to save him. After the war they return to America and both apply and receive jobs flying commercial airliners for Global Air. However, over the Caribbean Ocean they crash land in the ocean and are set adrift. They eventually land on an island that has been a secret base for German U-boats and are received warmly by the natives. The story concludes with Dawson and Billups helping the natives develop the island as a resort.