The article centers on a year in the life of three men endeavouring to endure a round of corporate downsizing at a major business - and how that sways them, their families, and their communities. Three trusted executives get axed in a business downsizing frenzy that upends their lives. They each cope differently as they fall through the cascading phases of wrath, humiliation, disquiet, introspection and so on, until they find their own resolve.