This novel is set within a single day in February 2003. Henry Perowne is a successful neurosurgeon living in the gathering pessimism of the looming war with Iraq. A minor accident in his car brings him into a confrontation with a small-time thug, of whom Perowne can see something is profoundly wrong. When the man visits Perowne's home that evening, the savage consequences lead Perowne to deploy all his skills to keep this doomed figure alive. Huge promotion and media coverage. "He is this country's unrivalled literary giant" "Independent On Sunday"

Perowne makes his way to his weekly squash game through London streets filled with hundreds of thousands of anti-war protestors. A minor car accident brings him into a confrontation with Baxter, a fidgety, aggressive, young man, on the edge of violence. To Perowne's professional eye, there appears to be something profoundly wrong with him.