In 1952, at a family wedding, Jimmy Goble’s brother-in-law, Eric, urges Jimmy and Katherine to relocate from Marion to Newport News, where Eric and Jimmy’s sister, Margaret, live. Eric is well connected and can get Jimmy a job at the shipyard. Eric also thinks he can get Katherine a job as a mathematician at Langley. He knows several of the women who work there, including the section head. Katherine and Jimmy decide that the opportunity to earn much more than they currently do as teachers is too good to pass up. With their three daughters, they move to Newsome Park. Eric has found Jimmy a shipyard job as a painter, and Katherine’s Langley application is accepted. Once she starts work there, in 1953, she is happily surprised to find that her new boss is Dorothy, her former neighbor from White Sulphur Springs.

Soon, Dorothy sends Katherine on temporary assignment to the nearby Flight Research Division. Arriving there and unsure whom to report to, she finds an empty desk, sits down, and smiles at the white man next to her. He gives her a sideways glance, then stands up and walks away. She wonders whether he was reacting to her race or her gender, or was about to get up anyway. She cannot guess and chooses to give the matter no more thought. Soon after, Katherine and the man discover they have something in common: they are both West Virginia transplants. They become fast friends.