We're in an English village shortly before Dunkirk. "Mr. Tom" Oakley still broods over the death of his wife and small son while he was away in the navy during WWI, and grief has made him a surly hermit. Now children evacuated from London are overwhelming volunteers to house them. Practically under protest, Mr. Tom takes in a painfully quiet 10-year-old, who gradually reveals big problems.
Con man Dudley Jerico sets out to rob corrupt millionaire Victor Rosso of his legendary Gemini diamond, but there's another operator in town who is out to con the con.
While mainland Britain shivers in deepest winter, the northern island of Fara bakes in the nineties, and the boys at the Met station have no more idea what is going on than the regulars at the Swan. Only a stand-offish visting scientist realizes space aliens are to blame.
A lord returns to his manor with his new wife, to hear rumours that he had already secretly returned and had committed several murders. Has he lost his mind, or is something dark afoot ?
