Indicted for murder in one of the worst crimes against the Northwest Mounted Police in their storied history 16 year-old Harley Melanson escapes to join the Canadian army, which is heading off to fight in the mud of Flanders during World War I. Behind him is Robert DeWolfe, an inspector with the newly-formed Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who is one step behind him in, what eventually turns out to be, an 84 year chase.

While eluding the police inspector, Melanson becomes a fighter pilot, flying in four conflicts and meeting heroes and villains along the way such as Billy Bishop, Will Barker, Hermann Göring, Sir Arthur Currie, Benito Mussolini, Joseph Stalin, German flying ace, Adolph Galland, Ernest Hemingway and Winston Churchill.

Now masquerading as Brian Shelby, a 99 year-old Halifax multi-millionaire whose fortune was made in the aviation field, Harley is visited by members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Justice Department who mean to find out if the Order of Canada recipient is really a war hero, or a fugitive "cop-killer."