Tree of Smoke follows William "Skip" Sands, a CIA operative engaged in Psychological Operations against the Vietcong, and the disasters that befall him amid the Vietnam War. The narrative tracks Sands’s work in covert propaganda and the personal and professional unraveling that attends those operations. The book also follows the Houston brothers, Bill and James, two young men who drift out of the Arizona desert and into the war. Their arrival highlights a widening gap between disinformation and delusion as the conflict reshapes beliefs, loyalties, and the boundaries of truth.