Graeme is an officer in the RCAF but no gallant hero. He’s a broody sort, a womanizer and an alcoholic, a nasty mess. Professionally that means his superiors won’t let him near an aircraft. Otherwise, his dissolute disposition is a poison to both his marriage to Michael (“Mi” to her friends) and the relationship with his son, eight-year-old Matthew. He’s not a violent man, just brutally insensitive, sullen, and dishonest – all of which, come to that, amounts to a violence in its own way. But this isn’t Graeme’s story so much as it’s Mi’s, with her strength and tenacity, her steadiness and patience.