Master Chief Petty Officer Clay Berkeley, USN, retires after twenty-two years in the Navy. He is financially secure, but finds himself adrift and discontented. He is about to seek a job when offered the opportunity to run for congress by a mysterious old man. He initially declines the offer, but his wife, Patty, convinces him to file for the office. The media has as little use for Clay as he has for the media and he is maligned by media sources. His campaign manager is stunned when a tabloid plans to print a story that Clay once impregnated and jilted a British Blueblood. Fundementalist churches circulate a letter accusing him of unseemly deeds. His bulldog is badly wounded by his enemy. He is accused by a local newspaper of being a John Wayne type when he assists in apprehending the shooter of his bulldog. Clay suffers life-threatening gunshot wounds the night of the election.

His highly intelligent, pixie-like wife is not reluctant to advise Clay as to which course to steer and her love for him does not prevent her from taking him to task when she deems it necessary. She sees role as a mother to the son they adopted and as prime helpmate to Clay. She cannot help hating her first cousin, Curtis Longly, who tormented her since they were children and who she is certain is behind everything bad that happens to her and her family.