Break  is about the unexpected effects of the Ground Zero recovery effort on New York City's firemen and policemen, and their families. In December of 2001, FDNY Captain Jon Emmett and NYPD Officer Marco Gennaro are both assigned to Ground Zero. Emmett is struggling with the loss of hundreds of friends and the disintegration of his family while Gennaro is fighting to keep his marriage together, though being around his wife and child is a constant reminder of what he could so easily lose in the post-9/11 world. The two end up sitting together in the overcrowded dining room of the tent at Ground Zero. Though they can't help but enter into battle over the nature of their jobs and why things happened the way they did on 9/11, more important questions of faith in humanity—and how to survive the recovery—arise.