Annihilate and obliterate are oft used terms in the summer of 1962, and the village of Windsor, Iowa, is under siege by its own hysteria. The Cold War haunts every doorstep, as do threats of bombs from overseas--life extinguished in a horrific mushroom cloud. A sign of the times, people in the small town are in a constant state of readiness for nuclear war.

In his fervent quest for survival, wealthy construction magnate George Dobbs builds a state-of-the-art fallout shelter big enough for the entire town. Carved into the nearby hillside, the shelter is impenetrable with a door of heavy steel and walls and ceilings of one-foot thick cement. When the nuclear holocaust begins, the town of Windsor will be ready.

When it happens, this possible end to the world, the townspeople swarm to the shelter. In the days of confinement, people change their lives, make surprising commitments, and do what mankind does best--survive. When the truth is ultimately revealed, will life return to the way it once was in this small, peaceful town, or will all Windsor residents be changed forever?