The story starts in 1983 when the main character, Bill Guth is the Lieutenant on board a nuclear submarine. They are deep in the Atlantic Ocean when they get an order to launch a strike against their enemy. Luckily, nobody follows the order because they know the horror it would cause if they did, and it also turns out that the order was a mistake. However another tragedy occurs on board the submarine because one of the men has died. Nobody knows why the man died and it all looks very suspicious.
The story then takes us up to the present day when Bill Guth and his family are having a get together and a historian turns up on the day. This man wants to find out more about what was going on onboard the submarine back in 1983. Bill does not want to talk about it for obvious reasons. Then suspicion falls on Bill and his family when the historian is later found dead.
This is a great story for readers of thriller type books and to some extent readers of military history.