The year is 1962. Anthony Fernard is a civil servant with a minor but responsible position in the Home Office. He has a steady job and a reasonably happy home life. His run of the mill routine is enlivened by a mild entanglement with a young woman and a tendency to do things his own way at work, whatever the official line.

Through his inside contacts at the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence he learns how extremely serious the Cuban Missile Crisis has become, with the United States and the Soviet Union in a deadly game of chicken Confronting the possibility of only a day or two until a nuclear war will devastate the world he flings caution to the wind, embarking on a love affair and making a reckless decision which will compromise his position and draw him into a world of blackmail and espionage.

At first he enjoys the excitement of his new impulsive and unpredictable life against the background of a Britain rocked by a succession of security and ministerial crises. But as events unfold he gradually realises that the consequences for himself and those he cares about are full of unforeseen and potentially dangerous outcomes. How will Anthony resolve his dilemmas as his life threatens to spin out of his control?