With the country in a prolonged depression, letter carrier Josie Catrite is thankful to still have a job and a home. She struggles to hold onto the threads of the past in a drastically changed present. Josie's mind and spirit are under constant assault by the misery of others, even as she tries to avoid their fate. Her brother Dennis, a postal inspector and former Marine is her closest friend and mentor. When Josie learns of her brother's underground activities, fighting against the many changes that twelve years of total government control have brought to the country, she's shaken to the core. Josie is doused by the cold, well hidden truths about her brother and her country. She is forced to make a decision, join the fight for a return to the founders' America, or live long enough to perish as a coward. The path that Josie chooses takes her into a world and position she could never foresee.