Set in the New York City metropolitan area in 1973, the book follows the suddenly changing (dramatically) life and times of forty-something Victor B. Smigelski. Divorced-and the father of two-he'd led a rather uneventful life in the rent-a-car game. When hard times hit, he is forced to go to work as a security guard. The job holds much more adventure than he could've imagined. Twice, he winds up in the hospital after three physical confrontations in three different venues. His fiancee, June Bodner, is grossly upset over the perilous direction his life has taken. She urges him to quit He vows to comply. But, economics being what they were, he remains with the security company. Further, he winds up in a disgusting role: monitoring a TV camera-in the employees' men's room In that capacity, he overhears two members of a radical group planning to bomb the Statue of Liberty and other celebrated sites in the area It's all part of an alliance with other like-minded groups. They would stage such terroristic events all across the nation Smigelski's problem: no one will believe him He finally manages to convince Lt. Royce Dane of the police bomb squad Dane pursues the case and arrests the eleven people involved in the group. Dane's problem: he has not gotten a warrant He has heard the group assembling bombs He has burst into their lair The arrests, of course, are thrown out The book, then, depicts the various problems Dane and Smigelski have trying to cope with these subhumans Dane doesn't make it June and her two children are blown up Smigelski's wife and children barely escape the same fate He is confronted by four submachine gun-wielding members of the gang How he manages to cope with these traumatic situations is of more than passing interest "