Jack's personal life evolves in parallel with his undercover activities. His perspectives change as he matures and becomes entangled in the counterculture. Jack acquires a deeper understanding of the American political system and the pivotal events of the time, challenging long held beliefs. Experimental social arrangements like group living and open relationships become common. Jack shuns soul-killing jobs; soundly rejecting the lives of quiet desperation so vividly expressed by Thoreau, and seeks inventive income sources to support an unconventional lifestyle.

Jack's adventures connect him to an odd cast of characters: gambling engineers, seductive secretaries, slick poker players, innovative social workers, nude dancers, Swiss bankers, secret government operatives, shrewd investors, karate experts, sexual freedom advocates, sleazy bar patrons, and veiled CIA agents.

Greater San Diego provides the main venue for this work. The story line accurately depicts global events of the period 1962 through 1975, including inflation of the military-industrial complex, Cuban missile crisis, assassination of President Kennedy, and Vietnam War. Actual reckless actions by US military and political leaders are revealed, actions that come within a hair's breadth of causing America's destruction. The story line involves real places, accurately depicted by an author-witness who lived it. .