Without warning, Russia starts an operation to seize control of a vital arctic waterway off the Alaska coast. For hot-wired naval aviator, Karen 'Bunny' O'Hare, it's about to be a bad day at the office. Not everyone takes impending nuclear Armageddon as calmly as O'Hare. From an airfield in Russia, Major-General Bondarev, is leading a war he doesn't understand against machines instead of men. Under the US Embassy in Moscow, Ambassador Devlin McCarthy discovers she can follow her conscience, or the orders of her Secretary of State, but not both. And staggering through the rubble of Saint Lawrence Island, teenager Perri Tungyan learns how far his country is willing to go to protect its national interests.