An airline's attempt to impose reduced Conditions of Service and to have non-pilots order captains to extend duty periods (legally permitted only at the captain's discretion) escalates to the point where 49 pilots are summarily fired. The pilots are publicly defamed, making it difficult or impossible for them to find alternative employment. Their efforts to achieve justice are blocked by lies, obfuscation and attempts to run them out of legal funds.
A pilot kills himself; another pilot's partner hangs herself and two months later he dies of a heart attack aged 35 leaving a young daughter. The author suffers a myocardial infarction.