Twelve years after World War I, former Flight Sergeant Ben Norton must discover the truth behind his wartime colleague's death.

1930. The Lance family, major shareholders in Marshfield Aviation, watch in horror as their prototype fighter fails to pull out of a dive during a display before government and military VIPs. At the pilot's funeral, a man introduces himself to the widow as Ben Norton, a close friend of her husband during war service with the Royal Flying Corps.

Ben becomes Marshfield's new Test Pilot, determined to refute worldwide press claims of a faulty aircraft design. Convinced that deliberate sabotage was behind the crash, the young flyer vows to uncover whoever was responsible. But who is Ben Norton? And why is it that the man he claims to have been his close wartime colleague had not once mentioned Ben to his wife during eight years of marriage?