The book begins in January 1944, the point at which serious thought started to be given to the size and shape of the future Navy. Postwar retrenchment meant the Admiralty needed to reduce spending on the Fleet and release manpower for the civilian economy, but also to adjust to the appearance of nuclear weapons and the incipient Cold War with the Soviet Union. Repeated financial crises upset plans almost as soon as they were made. The volume concludes with the outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950, which upset many previous planning assumptions and initiated a short-lived rearmament programme.

Subsequent volumes will continue the story through the 1950s and beyond.