KALINDRA STEPNEY (Kal) is an emerging spoken-word poetess, someone who willingly speaks her thoughts, but she's an artist who has yet to find her voice. A native of California, Kal has dreams of taking her poems to New York and the infamous Nuyorican stage. Haunted by a miscarriage and saddled with RONNIE, a husband who's angry and without direction - he uses his fists as a form of speech, Kal tries desperately to find an outlet for her struggling voice.

When his army unit was ambushed during the first Gulf War, Sergeant Raymond Shaw saved his fellow soldiers just as his commanding officer, then-Captain Ben Marco, was knocked unconscious. Brokering the incident for political capital, Shaw eventually becomes a vice-presidential nominee, while Marco is haunted by dreams of what happened -- or didn't happen -- in Kuwait. As Marco (now a Major) investigates, the story begins to unravel, to the point where he questions if it happened at all. Is it possible the entire unit was kidnapped and brainwashed to believe Shaw is a war hero as part of a plot to seize the White House? Some very powerful people at Manchurian Global corporation appear desperate to stop him from finding out.

Eccentric Jeffrey Mannus is 29 years old and still lives at home with his mom, Jan. He sees no reason to alter this arrangement, but his perfect world is upended when Jan meets Mert, a motivational speaker. Mert successfully woos Jan and moves in on Jeffrey's territory, something Jeffrey will not tolerate. Jeffrey enlists the aid of an unlikely ally, an aspiring singer-songwriter, Nora, with an anti-establishment penchant and a soft spot for him. As the war between Mert and Jeffrey escalates, something unprecedented happens -- slowly, to both his own surprise and horror, Jeffrey discovers his inner adult.