[1] Bill Sarratt, the novel's narrator, is a war-time volunteer civil servant who is struggling during the London Blitz to establish efficient working practices in his department of the Ministry.

A competent planner, Sarratt find himself increasingly frustrated that his every initiative is being blocked by his boss, Lennox, who is in the pocket of big business.

Marcia is committed to her marriage and she attempts to finish with Stephen several times, but is unable to resist his emotional outbursts and the feelings of guilt they create in her.

Sarratt has for months been working on a scheme to improve the reliability of wartime industrial output, and it appears that for once, due to the approval of the government minister, Lennox has been unable to block it.

However, at the very end of the meeting set up to approve enforcement, the minister allows himself to be persuaded that the scheme should be purely voluntary, thereby undermining its entire purpose.