It is 1950, the League of Nations has collapsed and the newly formed United Nations has rejected all those who worked and fought for the League. Edith Campbell Berry and her now-husband Ambrose Westwood are now back: from one of the oldest cities of the world to the world's newest city, she moved from trying to make a world capital in Geneva, to a dusty town trying to become a national capital. Edith has ambitions to be Australia's first female Ambassador and is seeking a position in Canberra with the Department of External Affairs. Finding her ambitions thwarted in this area, Edith vigorously involves herself in the building of the new centre of civilization. Frederick - Edith's brother who disappeared from her life before she left Australia - reacquaints himself with her and introduces Edith to the Australian Communist Party, of which he is a leader. Frederick's relationship to Edith, in the time of the Communist Party Dissolution Act, is a threat to Ambrose's career with the High Commission - or does it provide him with an opportunity to spy?