Jack "Rattler" Owen is a Navy pilot on a combat deployment struggling with life at sea. If dealing with separation from his family, the constant grind of shipboard life and malfunctions in the E-2C Hawkeye weren't enough, it now seems that someone is out to get him. As he tries to navigate his time on the aircraft carrier he realizes that things are not adding up in his squadron. Rattler is faced with having to choose the safe path or the path that could end his career or even his life to expose the leadership that is willing to stop at nothing to benefit their own agenda.