It is October 1972 and the tenth anniversary of the October War approaches.
For Marija and Peter, the President-designate and future First Man of Malta, Independence Day is almost upon them.
The world is a very different place than it was in October 1962; whether its leaders have learned anything from the folly of their predecessors is of course, quite another matter.
Much as it might seem as if a new, saner world order is beginning to assert itself not everything is what it seems to be and old enmities die hard.
For Malta Independence Day might be coming but in a world still reeling from the nightmare of the October War, there are few certainties and pitfalls a-plenty for the survivors of the first ten years after the cataclysm.
For my readers who prefer to read the Timeline 10/27/62 books in the chronological order of the overall narrative arc CHANGING OF THE GUARD = 35.