David Kincade, an aerospace executive, was perched on the threshold of a crucial promotion when his mentoras asuicidea destroys his career and threatens his life. Corporate politics, greed, corruption, and a defective marriage compel him to exile and a jittery journey to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The path he is forced to take falls outside his range of normal human behavior and results in a post-traumatic disorder. Along the path, Kincade is lured into an illegal scheme by Steve Rennecki, a sadistic womanizer and psychotic drug addict, becoming entangled in a bizarre life of crime. Kincade exists in an authentic, panoramic portrait of the expatriates society as he faces an unraveling marriage, a wayward son, and a space project doomed to failure.