This fictional story concerns the harbour in Barcelona in 2008. Early in the year an English resident, who keeps his sailing boat in Marina Port Vell, was apporached by members of MI5, the British Intelligence group, and asked to prepare a report concerning the security of the Port of Barcelona. The request was made in view of the increasing number of cruise liners belonging to British companies, that visit the city.  Part of the report prepared by the Englishman falls into the hands of terrorists and when the authorities in Spain become aware that this has happened, they make every effort to thwart a possible attack on the port. The first part of the book explains how this is done. The second part of the book describes how, notwithstanding the arrest of the man who had passed the report to the terrorists, it was decided by the terrorists to make an attack on the port. They assembled explosives, arms and ammunition in the south of France and transported these by boat to Barcelona via Menorca. Once in Barcelona they planned a simultaneous attack on key facilities within the Port.  By chance, however, their overall plot was discovered and the security forces then began to search for details that would allow them to find the identities and whereabouts of the attackers, and the proposed time and place of the attack. In spite of a rigorous search, wigh the authorities working against the clock, the identity of the attackers was not unearthed, and neither were the details that would lead to the discovery of the time and place of the attack.  When the attackers realised that their plot ad been detected, they quickly made alternative plans to ensure that their attack would succeed. It did so because, too late, the authorities realised that they had been duped by the attackers regarding the time of the attack. The horrific result for the  people who were attacked and the catastrophic consequence for the port of Barcelona proved that the efforts that had been made to make the port safe, were quite inadequate.