"Two steps inside the door, Crawley saw the beginnings of the destruction...Academic journals were broken at the spine and ripped apart, chair upholstery was torn; a bookcase had been toppled, scattering the contents...a metal filing cabinet was a twisted ruin. Ruth May....examined Crawley's card.
'You wouldn't be from the Federal Security Agency, would you, Mr Crawley?'
Crawley stared at her. 'Why d'you say that?'
Ruth shrugged. 'I've got a feeling that's who's behind all this.'"
When Crawley is elevated to the post of Acting Director of the Federal Security Agency in Canberra he discovers a number of disturbing aspects to the job. One is Carol Mainwaring, his cool, efficient, but alarmingly attractive secretary; another is the mysterious deaths of a number of FSA archivists. And then there is Ruth May, daughter of one of the dead archivists---a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to Crawley's wife.
In the midst of the labyrinths of the FSA, Crawley and Huck find themselves drawn into an increasingly complex and terrifying trap---the time trap.