"The parsimony of humanity had gone beyond the politics determined by two men in a room. It was more aligned with the sound of a room full of men clapping with one hand; invariably it becomes an orgy of backslapping." John Mathewson is a man ahead of his time; cynical about things that the rest of the world was yet to be jaded by. He becomes embroiled in a conspiracy at a time when conspiracies were less conspiratorial and more actual. He must risk losing everything he loves. His wife Carmen must put her faith in a bewitching science. Her friend Madeline must survive a forgotten war. And Jentz, a German defector with a penance to pay, must not drink the tea... Take a journey back in time to see the future as it might have been and the past as it never was...or was it?