This story explores society's reactions to the threat of terrorism. John Byron Jones (Byron) is middle aged and recently widowed. A school teacher, he is unemployed having taken time out to look after his dying wife, but as a younger man worked as an industrial chemist in military support services. Politically he is sensible middle-of-the road conservative from a farming family background. But as the complex and dark story develops Byron finds that his comfortable assumptions about life, conservative views and loyalties, increasingly under challenge. Byron grieves for his wife but his sense of loyalty towards Margot, an American charity worker he meets on the road, suggests he has perhaps found a new partner.