Hugh Whitemore's classic play is a powerfully moving, fictional account of the events leading up to the arrest of Peter and Helen Kroger, two Americans living in a London suburb, who were convicted of spying for the Russians and sentenced to twenty years imprisonment. The action centres on the quietly respectable, totally unsuspecting Jackson household - Bob, Barbara and daughter Julie - who live opposite the Kroger's and consider them their closest friends.When an MI5 official arrives suddenly and coerces the Jackson into allowing their house to be used as a surveillance post the decent, happy life is shattered as the are plunged into a sordid, alien world of deceit and intrigue, gradually learning the truth about their much-loved, trusted friends. Eventually Barbara reaches breaking point in the agonising realisation that the Kroger's have betrayed her and she has betrayed the Kroger's.