A young naval officer comes to grips with his feelings about racism, and struggles to resolve the conflict between the needs of his family, and his career. Based upon real events, it is clear that race problems in the US Navy were unresolved in the mid-1970's.

Lieutenant (junior grade) Mitch Payne reports to the USS Scarslund, a Navy destroyer long past its prime, ready to work hard and restart his stalled career. He has to navigate treacherous wardroom politics, even as building racial tensions on the ship deteriorate.

Everything comes to a head when all of the black sailors stage a massed disobedience of orders which hazards the ship. Payne, as the ship's legal officer, is then drawn into the Navy's prosecution of the ringleaders. The Navy's ham-fisted efforts to expunge traces of its discriminatory past, very similar to the discredited critical race theory of today, are also described in acid detail.