Alison can read anything: body language, the shape of a city, the odds on a footballer scoring a goal. She hates it, because what she's reading now is the End of the World. Wing Commander Leyton is a pilot from the future, thrown back in time from an interstellar war to the City of Bath in the early years of the 21st Century. Douglas is a vicious killer, a master of disguise, who's been operating on his own brain to try and make himself into the perfect post-modern citizen. Frederick Cleves is the Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, the master of British espionage. Jocelyn is Leyton's navigator. She's a head without a body. The paths of these five map out a quest for Alison's best friend, stolen by the Golden Men, who some call Angels. This quest reaches back to the New Testament, and forward to the end of time: an end which Alison and her friends will have to make terrible sacrifices to prevent.