The story alternates between Zeno and Della, who are barnstormers, and Bill Faulkner. After WWI, pilots came back home and bought cheap planes and flew around the countryside, taking ordinary folks up for quick rides. Some of them had wing-walkers: brave people who would walk along the wings and dangle from various parts of the plane, dazzling everyone watching below. Zeno is the pilot and Della is the wing-walker. They're accompanied by their Scotty, Sark. Zeno is content to keep flying around and passing the hat in the communities they entertain, but Della dreams of going to Hollywood and flying for the movies.
William Faulkner and his brothers all became pilots. Bill, by all accounts, was not great at it but his youngest brother Dean had a real affinity for it. Bill's early years as a writer are tough but he eventually starts to gain some fame after his third book, "The Sound and the Fury". He's inspired to write a book about barnstormers after attending the opening of the new airport in New Orleans (and meeting the fictional Zeno and Della). The result is "Pylon".
Bill's brother Dean dies in a plane crash, in the plane Bill gifted to him, leaving behind a pregnant wife. Bill felt guilty about Dean's death and blamed himself. He cared for his niece, Dean (named after her dead father) until he died. Zeno and Della's parts sort of dragged along but Bill's sections were quite good.
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