Phyllis Dietrichson is trapped in a loveless marriage to a man who inspires in her nothing but contempt, but rather than leave him Phyllis decides to kill him and collect on the insurance policy she's had set up with the help of her lover, and naive partner in crime, insurance salesman Walter Neff. The only flaws in their plan are the company's reluctance to pay out so much, the diligence of Neff's increasingly suspicious colleague, (and his 'little man'), and the exemplary ruthlessness of Ph find out more...

A global war begins in 1940. This war drags out over many decades until the remaining people have no recollection of who started it or why. Nothing is being manufactured any more and society has broken down into primitive localized communities. In 1966 a great plague wipes out most of those still left, but one day a strange aircraft lands at one of these communities and its pilot tells of an organisation which is rebuilding civilization. Immense reconstruction takes place over the next few decad find out more...