It is June 1951. Italy. The revolutionary DH Comet is on a final test programme. The plane, a technological leap of faith by a relatively small British company, will give Britain a 5 year head start over its American and French competition. But the knives are out for it; there is a threat to the plane. Soon three people - Stafford, a brilliant engineer, his headstrong sister Harriet and Harry Jones, a rogue and former Soviet agent - are reluctantly drawn into a web of intrigue spun by the competing interests of British Intelligence, the company, the Americans and the Russians involving sabotage, espionage and murder. Can they find out who is behind the plot before it is too late? Can they save the aircraft and themselves?