Mick Mackintosh has done everything right. He has earned a college degree and excelled in two different careers. He has embarked on a graduate program to improve himself. Then, with a son in college and another on the verge of high school graduation, Mick loses his job to the post-9/11 economy. When he attempts to re-enter the workforce, he encounters an economy that dismisses his accomplishments and dwells only on his shortcomings. Without a job, he descends into personal darkness, fighting his ex-wife, his younger son's intentions to join the military to fight in Iraq, a new economic paradigm he cannot grasp, and a world increasingly unsympathetic to his needs. Mick also balances the appeal of a colleague young enough to be his daughter against the lure of a prosperous woman from his past. Ultimately, he must decide whether to abide by the principles that have served him all of his life or abandon them for his own survival.