The Arrow That Flies by Day deals with a wounded marine’s efforts to conquer his physical wounds and to play in the NFL and to overcome his spiritual and emotional wounds to win at the ultimate game of life. The main character joins the service to avoid reform school and comes out physically and emotionally wounded. His parents are dead, he has no family, and he has one friend—an old nun who was his high school principal and who would help him find his way.

After being wounded, a wound that made him impotent, he is only fit to be a kicker like he was in high school. Even that did not come easily since he had broken his leg when he was in high school. But his father and the old nun trained him never to give up.

Our marine shows up at training camp one day with all his belongings. He never went to college or played on any college football team, but the aggressiveness he learned in the service and the commitment he learned from his father and his friend, the nun, helps motivate him to succeed but also causes conflicts with certain teammates.

The story progresses through the professional and personal struggles for this man who does not know the meaning of surrender. He is at first cut from the team because of his lack of experience, but an injury to the team’s kicker provides an opportunity for him to return and play a crucial role in the team’s success. Along the way he falls in love with a girl he knew in high school who he meets by chance at her father’s restaurant, and he struggles to figure out how his wounds will affect their relationship.

But the romance and his career are cut short when our marine has to make a choice that causes him to lose everything he has worked for but to win an even bigger game—the game of life.