In this final volume of the Red-Button Years trilogy, the red-button and blue-button unions have amalgamated to form the United Vehicle Workers. Bus driver and union activist Mickey Rice, now married, sees this as a step backwards, as the new leadership looks askance at the former democratic practices of London busworkers. But a new amalgamation is on the horizon, as Ernest Bevin is bringing together the unions which will comprise the Transport and General Workers' Union. Mickey Rice sees this as an opportunity and, while opposing those who advocate a breakaway, leads the campaign for the restoration of red-button democracy.
Meanwhile, as the economy goes into recession, busworkers, having achieved the status of "labour aristocrats" in 1919, are confronted by employers intent upon reversing previous gains.
The activities of Bob Williams, secretary of the National Transport Workers' Federation, give readers an insight into the major events of the period, including the Soviet experiment (Williams travels to Russia, where he meets Lenin) and the betrayal of the miners on "Black Friday."
Mickey has his hands full: he has several rows with the new superintendent at his garage; is apprehended by Special Branch officers who pressure him to cooperate in the framing of unrecognised Soviet ambassador Theodore Rothstein; he leads a campaign for solidarity with Britain's miners; and then there's the confrontation with Sylvia Pankurst...
As in the previous novels in the series, real-life figures like Ernest Bevin, Lord Ashfield, Sylvia Pankhurst, George Sanders and Theodore Rothstein interact with Fuller's fictional characters.