Will Johnstone's seventy-year-old consciousness finds itself back in his twelve-year-old body as it is about to suicide. His 'old brain' pulls back from the act and resumes his much younger self's troubled life. It is soon apparent that there are subtle differences between the world he lived in and the one he now finds himself in - and these difference accumulate. Through his friendship with Col, Will finds himself caught up in events at the edge of the Cold War.

This story contains some physical child abuse and suicide ideation.