In September of 1940, Ned Smith, Professor of Physics at a small men's college in Illinois, gets a telegram inviting him to join a secret project at MIT. He jumps at the chance, even if it means parting from attractive and intelligent Dorothy Wilson, just as they are getting to know each other. In the next few months, while Franklin Roosevelt runs for his third term and Britain seems ever more likely to succumb to a Nazi invasion, Ned feverishly works on the Radar project in Cambridge, Massachusetts while Dorothy explores unanticipated opportunities back in small-town Illinois. There is fire, murder, and a mystical revelation as Ned works with the wealthy and the politically powerful before his team can deliver this technology which affects the outcome of World War II.