In 1963, the first US defence facility on Australian soil was established - the US Naval Communication Station at North West Cape in Western Australia. 

In the context of America's Cold War struggle against communism, North West Cape's primary function was to communicate with the US fleet serving in the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans, in particular nuclear missile submarines - the United States Navy's most powerful deterrent force. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the US Naval Communication Station at North West Cape in Western Australia came to be viewed as one of the most important outposts of US defence. 

In this important and long-overdue history, Ondaatje and Barker pursue the numerous implications that North West Cape had for Australia-US relations, Australian politics and its impact upon the social landscape of Western Australia.