It's New York City in the dark days of 1975. Crime is up, the roads are impossibly gridlocked, and the Big Apple is on the verge of bankruptcy. And, just as he had threatened, there wasn't even Nixon to kick around anymore. High above the despairing streets, Jason Sims, part-time guitarist and one-time sixties idealist, now pilots a helicopter for the traffic reporter of a television news station. At the request of the station's mysterious owner, Jason agrees to do some extra flying, leapfrogging over the impassible streets below. But during these extra-curricular flights he observes activities that could be related to the urban corruption scandal that his best friend, journalist Adam Shaker, has been investigating. As Jason becomes inadvertently enmeshed in the City's political crisis-and a new love interest-he confronts the demons of his past and experiences a personal re-awakening.