Nevil Shute

"A tale of love and war, follows its enterprising heroine from Malayan jungle during World War II to the rugged Australian outback." -- Cover, p.4.

R.A.F. pilot, accused of sinking British submarine, takes dangerous assignment and his girl clears up the mystery.

Allan had been away from Coombaragana, flying in the Royal Air Force. Now he has returned, wounded and disillusioned, to his ancestral home. Days before, Jessie Proctor had taken her own life. Why? Allan looked at the young face in the photograph in Jessie's passport and froze. He knew who she really was.

Life in the Corbett family turned upside down when the first German bombs struck their well-ordered street. But life goes on through fire and destruction, life and love rising from the rubble of London and "the Blitz."

Radioactive fallout from a nuclear war has wiped out the entire northern hemisphere, with the exception of Australia. With fallout expected momentarily, the Australians review their lives, establish new relationships and prepare for their tragic demise.