In one of London's outer suburbs lived a shabby insignificant schoolteacher with a repulsive, drunken wife. Experimenting with his secret invention was his only escape - until a headmaster's pacifist daughter brought sex and idealism into his life.

Then came the 'Peacemaker' - that curious lunatic who wrote to The Times threatening to spread confusion until there was total disarmament? Could the sexual awakening of this shy, retiring man have inspired him to create the chaos that now reigned throughout London?