It's San Francisco, 1989. Ambitious 39-year old Katie Carlisle works for a large corporation that is threatened by greatly increased competition. When the story starts, she is optimistic about the future. She is being groomed by her manager to take his place when he retires, and is secretly developing a strategy to make their company more competitive.

But then her dreams are threatened. Under pressure from the shareholders, the company CEO hires ruthless efficiency expert, Barry Bryce, to do basically what Katie had planned to do. A hostile rivalry develops between Katie and the new...