In 1961, Peter and Helen Kroger, two Americans living in a London suburb, were convicted of spying for the Russians and sentenced to twenty years' imprisonment. From these facts Hugh Whitemore has written a powerfully moving fictional account of the events leading up totheir arrest with the action centered on the totally unsuspecting Jackson household - Bob, Barbara and their daughter Julie. The Jacksons live opposite the Krogers, believing them to be a convivial Canadian couple and their closest friends. Then a mysterious stranger arrives, announcing he is from MI5 and quietly coerces the Jacksons into allowing their house to be used as a surveillance post. In the nightmare months that follow, the Jacksons' decent, happy life is shattered as the truth about their much-loved friends is gradually revealed to them and, helpless in an alien, sordid world of deception and treachery, Barbara reaches breaking point with the agonizing realization that the Krogers have betrayed herand she, in turn, has betrayed the Krogers.