The year is 2039, and Pleasure State is in full flower. Even the two-hour workday is optional. The ordinary man can spend his entire life in the perpetual pursuit of pleasure... except for one terrifying fact. Somewhere in the world there is a little black box. It weighs exactly twenty-four pounds. It is a detonator capable of blowing up the world's stored supply of nuclear and fission bombs. And it is in the hands of a madman who has decided to destroy the world on the 4th of July.