When Phyl, a young literature graduate, moves back home with her parents, she soon finds herself frustrated by the narrow horizons of English country life. But the chance discovery of a forgotten novelist from the 1980s stirs her into action, as does a visit from a family friend, Chris – especially when he tells her that he’s working on a political story that could put his life in danger. Chris has been following the progress of an opaque think-tank, founded at Cambridge University in the 1980s, which has been steadily pushing the British government in a more extreme direction. After years in the political wilderness, they are finally poised to put their ideas into action. As Britain finds itself under the leadership of a new Prime Minister whose tenure will only last for seven weeks, Chris pursues his story to a conference being held deep in the Cotswolds, where events take a sinister turn.