Yeoman Second Class Ben Yanek loves his job as a court reporter on the aircraft carrier Franklin D. Roosevelt. It's an easy billet and he's contemplating shipping over for six more years, until an assignment to the shore patrol in Palermo, Sicily, puts him on the trail of shipmates who would steal and kill to achieve their aims. What he finds puts his life and the lives of others on the massive ship, in danger from forces he still does not understand.