In a risk management, over regulated world, it becomes clear that the crisis is unexpected, and unveils itself in different ways, to different people. This story is set in the not too distant future, with technology we can already imagine. Adam works with some scientists connected to the Pentagon. He is away when it happens, and tells Terri, his partner - who works in an international company in New York - they must get out of the city. They flee to her parents, who live on a farm in the country. Things they say and do inspire Adam to look at 'time' and 'place' in a new, almost spiritual way. When he shares this new, instinctive approach with the academic teams working on the problem, they begin to rethink what might have gone wrong and why.