 On May Day 1970, a sleek new aeroplane lands in Everytown, startling the inhabitants who have not seen a new machine in many years.The pilot, John Cabal, emerges and proclaims that the last surviving band of engineers and mechanics known as "World Communications" have formed a civilisation of airmen called "Wings Over the World", based in Basra, Iraq.They have outlawed war and are rebuilding civilisation throughout the Near East and the Mediterranean.