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 postmodern 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.