This phantasmagoric study in terror is set in Second World War London. Arthur Rowe's mind is hamstrung by guilt - a Graham Greene speciality - and he stands aside from the war until he happens to guess both the true and the false weight of the cake at a charity fete. From that moment he is the quarry of malign and shadowy forces from which he tries to escape with a mind that is out of focus. The action plays out as bombs pound the city, and who is friend and who foe becomes increasingly uncertain.