10 September 1961: at the boomerang-shaped racetrack at Monza half a dozen teams are preparing for the Italian Grand Prix. It is the biggest race anyone can remember. Phil Hill - the first
American to break into the top ranks of European racing - and his Ferrari teammate, Count Wolfgang von Trips - a German nobleman with a movie-star manner - face one another in a race that will decide the winner of the Formula One drivers' championship. By the day's end, one man will clinch that prize. The other will perish face down on the track.

Seeped in danger, seductive glamour and burning rivalry, this is the story of two young men living in the shadow of oblivion and dicing with death.