The book provides an early history of Continental Airlines and chronological journal of the events leading up to the company's 1983 bankruptcy. It is the only book which describes and discusses the labor issues surrounding airline deregulation that led the pilots union, the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA), to strike. Arguably, it was the most contentious strike in the long history of the Airline Pilots Association - a strike that ended very surprisingly two years after it began in 1983.