George Bradfield would be quite happy with a house, a car and a loving wife, but 1938 is determined to distract him from his grand plan. An old friend with a dubious industrial process, brief encounters with mysterious and alluring women and periodic invitations to help the police with their enquiries all complicate his quest for domestic tranquillity. Statesmen, steam trains, refugees and revolutionaries all jostle for their share of the stage in this tall tale of the British Empire's last full year of peace.