It is 1956, and James, an army corporal, is sent to camouflage a dilapidated military base on the island of Foulness, an ancient landmass off the coast of Essex. Over the next six weeks as he struggles to even begin his task, we encounter remnants of the island's history: prehistoric artefacts, Dark Age literacy, a Victorian temperance movement, colonial atrocities in Tasmania and Abyssinia, and when James discovers the experiments taking place at a new facility close by, we are forced to encounter a possible future history: our willingness to end mankind.