In an idyllic Northumberland village, the locals prepare for the Harvest Festival as they and their ancestors have done for generations. They are ordinary men, women and children, as good and as bad, as subject to joy and misery, as any in the land. By the end of that day, all will be dead. Then new inhabitants arrive And begin to prepare for events which will rock nations. At a nearby air force base, the top brass awaits the arrival of the new President of the United States: Jewish, liberal, incorruptible, Joel Waterstone stands against the forces of fundamentalism and political extremism, at home and abroad. At a huge cost in human life, Waterstone is kidnapped and spirited away. An international hunt begins that takes one brave man and his friends to the heart of human darkness from the treacherous streets of Washington to the dying wastes of a land tearing itself apart. Twisted motives weave an even more twisted plot, with a denouement played out in a city of the dead, where darkness is never ending, and midnight comes at noon.