Written in 1953 and set 30 years in the future, there is an inner story and an outer story: the first crowded with the great figures of the British empire and the second set in the wilds of Queensland during the rains from November to April when a strange adventure takes place. Great Britain is still great - its people determined, tenacious and disciplined. A young airman and the girl he loves find themselves at the very hub of the affairs of Empire during the course of a very astonishing Constitutional crisis.