The sentinels return in an epic battle against a big oil monopoly. As America's dependence on fossil fuel takes hold in the post-World War Two climate of economic growth, seven major oil companies join forces to control the industry, amassing obscene profits, squeezing tax-payers, and manipulating supplies around the world. The Sentinels, graduates of an elite American doctoral program -- who, in Zuckerman's last book, foiled a group of German industrialists' scheme to hoard illegal war profits set out to break the circle of power. They quickly discover that the oil barons' influence runs deep in the U.S. and British government and banking sectors. Undeterred, the Sentinels fan out across several continents in an intricately plotted mission to bring Big Oil to its knees.