set in october 1962, in liverpool, actually in and around the authors own school, with the cuban missile crisis looming, it concerns 14-year-old laura mann, who has been entrusted with a strange key and code number to memorize by her father, an raf officer at strike command in high wycombe. the key turns out to be to a nuclear armed vulcan bomber and it becomes the target of time travellers from 2007, from alternate versions of laura's own future, all seeking to change the course of history.