Ryan Bingham is a 35 year old career transition counselor at a Denver-based management consulting company, Integrated Strategic Management (ISM). He flies around the country firing people. Ryan is trying to get to one million frequent flyer miles, a number only reached by nine other people in the same mileage club before his boss returns from vacation, finds his letter of resignation and cancels his company credit card.

He is divorced and his disturbed younger sister is about to embark on yet another disastrous relationship. Ryan is positioning himself to be hired by MythTech, a shadowy company in Omaha.
Ryan inhabits a world of Palm Pilots, rental cars, and nameless suite hotels where e-mail and voice mail are the communication norm. He takes a lot of pills and spends time with women in Las Vegas. Ryan fears that someone may be furtively cashing in his precious miles, which would be tantamount to stealing his soul.

With sharp wit, and wisdom, 'Up in the Air' combines brilliant social observation with an acute sense of the modern mind.

It is a story for unsettled times.