A small team of scientists at the Haughton Research Laboratory in Britain, led by Professor Sewell with Dr. Frederick Shole as his second-in-command, has been working on a cure for the plague for a few decades. Two of the junior scientists, Bob Marriott and Lucy Byrne, relatively new to the team, often work together on the frustratingly tedious and slow work of verifying information often without much progression. Bob is interested in Lucy romantically, but she is eventually up front with him that she lives with her former fiancé, Alan Andrews, who was an aspiring concert pianist until he lost both his hands in the Korean War. Lucy, who no longer loves Alan in he being a changed man, stays with him in her martyrdom and despite knowing that he uses his disability to manipulate people, including her and eventually Bob. Professor Sewell believes they are ready to publish their findings, the conclusion being a biological cure which would save many people. However, their work is functionally overtaken by Sir George Gatling, the Minister of Defense, who has made the decision that Sewell cannot publish in the greater threat of enemy agents using the cure for nefarious purposes. Sewell, who openly expresses his objection to Gatling of the political process overtaking the science, tells the rest of the team of the Minister's decision. While Gatling and his security team are worried enough about Sewell, publishing which would amount to treason, it is another team member, in an issue associated indirectly with Alan, who may be the biggest national security threat in not fully understanding the reason for not making the findings public.
—Huggo