The Many Adventures of Donnie Malone takes readers into the events that helped shape the American twentieth century. They begin when sixteen-year-old Donnie gets caught up in the patriotic swirl of World War I. Enlisting in the U.S. Army, he becomes a pilot during the deadly days at the end of the fighting. The stakes in Donnie's life are just as high after the war. He wrestles with wealthy investors and powerful politicians who have designs on his air delivery business. He is hired to drive a cab for an ambitious mobster and works at assorted dead-end jobs until he bumps into the man who taught him to fly, American ace Eddie Rickenbacker, and it changes his course. Later he befriends detainees in a Japanese internment camp, becomes enmeshed in labor struggles, and dodges McCarthy agents. During the Vietnam era, having seen enough war, Donnie helps several young men avoid the draft by flying them to Canada. Woven throughout Donnie's adventures are the threads of a rich family life, and contentment even in times of travail.