For an intelligence officer like Jim, today's world is a nightmare.

The Xian Flu pandemic and ongoing economic crises have fractured the European Union and new nations are springing up everywhere, some literally overnight. Every week or so a friendly power spawns, or a new and unknown national entity which may not be friendly to England's interests; it's hard to keep on top of it all. And things are about to get worse for Jim.

A stabbing on a London bus pitches him into a world where his intelligence service is preparing for war with another universe, and a man has come who may hold the key to unlocking the mystery.