The novel-in-progress is first person female and follows Brittany, a Naval Flight Officer, two weeks before the decommissioning, or retirement of the naval airplane known as the E-6B Mercury, two years after the E-6B plane crash that initiated the decommissioning process, and which killed everyone on board, including Brittany's only female friend in the squadron. Brittany's next job in the navy will be as a speechwriter at the Pentagon. As such, at the direction of her superior, she is charged with giving a speech at the ceremony on the last day of the ceremony. Brittany is undergoing inner turmoil while trying to continue her poised external self. By the end of the novel, and by her speech, she needs to reconcile these two parts of herself in order to give a good speech and in order to live a good life.