`FUBAR is the story of Thor Evensens ruin and recovery, of Rachel Risdahls fateful choice between two men, and of Rachels daughter Glenda growing up wiser and stronger than her mother. Its set in the Seattle high-tech suburbs of Bellevue and Redmond, in the mid-1990s. Once Thor had been a successful engineering manager, with a wife and three children and a big new house. He loses it all within the space of three weeks: Hes downsized out of his job, his headstrong small son Thor Jr. has a fatal accident while in his care, and his bitter wife Marie sues him for divorce. Abruptly, Thor is reduced to a struggling newly-single guy, initially unemployed and staying with his parents, and then moving to a rented room. When he does find a new position, its a manufacturers-representative sales job for which he considers himself ill-suited. At first he feels overwhelmed and beaten. He tells his parents that his life is FUBAR (Fouled Up Beyond All Repair, in the polite version). But they refuse to let him give up on himself. He works hard to make a go of it, and his fortunes slowly improve. He even buys a small condo. While driving back from a sales trip to Spokane, hes caught in a blizzard in Snoqualmie Pass, and forced off the road by a reckless driver into a deep snowdrift. He rents the last available room in a nearby ski lodge, and winds up sharing it chastely with Rachel Risdahl, R.N., after her car quits. Thor and Rachel hit it off well, go out to dinner on the following day after theyre both back in Seattle, and begin a passionate relationship. Rachel is beautiful, but has poor self-esteem. Shes very self-conscious about being half Tlingit Native American, despite her Norwegian surname. A few days later, Thor and Rachel are preparing Christmas dinner in her townhouse, when her rich and abusive ex-boyfriend Skip Eastman shows up. Theres a melee; her spunky high-school-senior daughter Glenda calls the police. They arrive. Skip flees, and is arrested on his way home, but posts bail. Three months later, while Thor is out of town on business during bad weather, Skip reappears and gets Rachel back by bribing her with a two-week trip to Hawaii. Thor telephones Rachel from Spokane and reaches Glenda. Glenda is outraged at her mother for going back to Skip. She pleads with Thor to keep on being her surrogate stepfather, at her school events. Thor is devastated, but tries to pick himself up and go on. He has a brief fling with his firms office manager, and goes out with his bosss sexy cousin for a few weeks. Skip beats Rachel severely; shes hospitalized. But when she gets out, she goes back to Skip and even moves in with him. Rachel gets fired from her job. Her ex-husband dies and leaves her and Glenda well off. Glenda remains living in Rachels townhouse, renting an extra bedroom to a classmate from Japan. Thor teams up, innocently, with the two attractive girls for most of his social life. Thors small daughter Tonja comes along, whenever Thor has her for visitation. Glenda is gorgeous, like her mother. Thor has an insistent and powerful undercurrent of sexual feelings for her, but scrupulously conceals them. Skip beats Rachel up yet once again, and then leaves on a two-day business trip. Rachel splits with him, packs her things, and returns to her own townhouse. Skip comes home early and discovers Rachels goodbye note to him, heads over there in a murderous rage, and chops through her front door with an axe. Glenda flees through an upstairs window. Rachel stays behind, calmly insisting that she can handle him. Glenda calls the police on her cellular telephone. While shes speaking with the dispatcher, she hears several gunshots; soon after that, sirens. She seeks refuge at Thors place. Skip drives away at high speed, pursued by four police cars, and has a fatal rollover accident