James Brittain attends a conference ostensibly to meet a director for a job with an international wool research organisation. It has been suggested to him that this would ideally position him to act as an undercover MI6 agent. He makes a good impression with the director and is offered a job. During the conference, he witnesses the abduction of a German scientist and the murder of a man trying to prevent the kidnap.

Unexpectedly, he finds himself involved in a hunt to find the kidnapped scientist-and a plot that threatens the survival of democracy in the UK. All this takes place against a backdrop of the 1964 general election where, for fear of communism, extreme right-wing political factions are determined to prevent a socialist government, at all costs. Is James ready to meet the challenge?