Conventional wisdom is that if the Crown Colonies of the Commonwealth of New England ever unite in common purpose; then the Empire might fall.
That this might happen at the very moment that century-old post-war settlement of the Treaty of Paris is threatening to fall apart, had been the unimaginable nightmare of generations of European monarchs, politicians, diplomats and generals.
The unthinkable is happening.
Mexican troops are advancing through the South Western borderlands of New England; nothing can stop them.
At sea, the supposedly invincible Royal Navy has been driven from the Caribbean and the Gulf of Spain.
The handful of survivors of HMS Achilles are trapped in enemy territory.
The three brothers unwittingly caught up in the events of Empire Day, 1976, are swept along by the tide of events, while news of Melody Danson and Henrietta De LβIsleβs adventures in Spain momentarily distract a bewildered and increasingly uneasy, public in the old and the new worlds.
In apparent disarray in the Americas, at home in England, the Government is attempting to navigate the fallout from the death of the Kaiser, distracted from the problems across the Atlantic.
And then secrets more explosive than any of the weapons deployed in the war threatening to change the map of New England, burst in the midst of the crisis.
In a world threatening to dissolve into chaos; who can step from the shadows to save the day?