The scene is contemporary London, where a loose-knit group of political vagabonds comprises an ill-defined and volatile underground. Drifting from one cause to the next, they occupy abandoned houses, demonstrate and picket, devise strategies to fit situations that may or may not arise. But, within this world, one particular commune-one small group of men and women whose deepest conviction seems to rest in a sense of their own largely untested radicalism-is moving inexorably toward active terrorism.At their center is Alice Mellings, who, though not the leader, is nevertheless the engine of the group. A brilliant organizer, Alice (in her mid-thirties) knows how to cope with almost anything, except the vacuum of her own life. And so we find her-in this latest of the countless squatters' communes she's inhabited during the past fifteen years-once again taking charge, taking care, being practical. Alice: always there, always reliable, giving her time and effort to running the house so that the others are free to take part in the demonstrations that are the motivating force of their lives, making herself indispensable-and invisible; earning a precious sense of belonging by denying her own sense of self.
Suddenly, however, the stakes are rising. Some of the group appear to have ties to insurgents in Northern Ireland and even to Soviets who are "recruiting" . . . a small bomb set off on a deserted street leads to ideas that are dangerously ambitious . . . a crate of guns is left at the house for reasons Alice and her companions don't want to understand fully . . . and there is a man, a "professional," who is eager to meet with Alice and discuss her future with his organization . . .