North Korea launches a hypersonic ICBM that barely misses Los Angeles. U.S. President Sarah Jacobsen recruits Ric O'Malley, a leading physicist and Medal of Honor recipient, to quickly complete a quantum computer (QC) project already under development. Running 150 million times faster than any existing computer, this QC can bring Artificial Intelligence (AI) to a level that can not only destroy but can take over any ICBM in the world. Ric races to East Asia to obtain breakthrough research data from South Korean and Japanese allies.

Before Ric can give the president a weaponized QC, she orders retaliation against North Korea which destroys the missile base that launched the attack on Los Angeles. Ultra-Marxists in China join with North Korea and strike the USS Ford aircraft carrier. Although damaged, the Ford is able to strike back at the Chinese mainland. The vortex of war in East Asia threatens to spiral into a full-fledged World War III.

Meanwhile, Ric is almost killed in separate attacks in South Korea and Japan. He races back to his lab in New Mexico only to have his wife Marie attacked by a shooter at her high school. Dark players pose threats both at home and abroad.

But even in this maelstrom of violence a plan for peace is taking place - an undersea "Peace Tunnel" between Japan and South Korea is almost completed. Visionary leaders are advocating that this tunnel be extended from Seoul to Pyongyang. This "Peace Road" might bring about reunification of the Korean Peninsula, bringing a permanent end to the nuclear threat from North Korea.

Can Ric surmount everything working against him and complete the QC in time to stop a nuclear war? And is a "Peace Road" even a viable option for permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula?