India's Parliament is mostly destroyed in an apparent terrorist attack while in session waiting for an address by the Prime Minister.

The new regime in North Korea launches an unarmed missile targeting an American base in Japan, killing many US troops and bringing United States into the crisis.

The new North Korean regime prepares for an invasion of South Korea while also testing a new biological weapon created from the viruses stolen from Australia and Russia.

The North Koreans successfully weaponize the new virus obtained from Australia and as a demonstration of their capability launches a missile to the middle of the Pacific Ocean where the US detects the presence of the biological agent.

For reasons not very clearly defined, the Pakistani military leadership decides on a pre-emptive nuclear strike against India.

Once the initial shots have been fired the crisis quickly spins out of control with retaliatory nuclear strikes by North Korea and Japan, an unsuccessful intercept of nuclear missiles launched at the US, a power shift in China and both China and Russia entering the war and resulting in a worldwide Armageddon.

In the Epilogue it is suggested that all the formal governments in the countries has been destroyed and the leadership hunkered in underground bunkers with the world still officially at war.