brooks devises two fictional characters, harold and erica, that he follows from around conception to natural death. harold goes through life with a somewhat passive, pedestrian attitude as an intelligent student, a historical-themed author, and later as a fellow at a washington, d.c. think tank. erica has a more focused, and driven attitude that leads her to overcome the failure of her start-up consulting business to become the ceo of a major cable corporation and eventually ascend to the position of (fictional) president richard grace's deputy chief of staff and then commerce secretary.