The poignant reunion of a retired admiral and his grandson, a recent graduate of the Naval Academy, draws to a close and the admiral is left to savor the sunsets, and walk among the portraits that frame his memory. Zach Tanner takes the reader from 1940 Hawaii, his first duty station, to 1951 Long Beach, California, where a then-seasoned line officer assumes his first command. From the moment he crosses the gangway of the USS Wingate, Zach is on a war footing to ready an inexperienced crew, in a ship that has been idled for five years, for duty in a war that was never declared. Following a shakedown cruise in the warm waters of the Caribbean, Wingate races across the Pacific to link up with Task Force 77, operating in the frigid waters of the Sea of Japan. Assigned picket duties, Wingate takes a hit by a floating mine and is forced to Yokosuka, Japan, for repairs. Once again fit for sea duty, she is dispatched to Najin, North Korea, to undertake a clandestine mission to kidnap a foreign national, the result of which abounds with political implications.