June 28, 1914:- Young Foreign Office clerk Alec recounts his delivering a telegram to his German-born boss, assistant under secretary Eyre Crowe, informing that the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife have been murdered in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Black Hand gang who resent Austrian influence in Serbia. In Berlin another young civil servant Jens takes up the story, reflecting on the German Kaiser Wilhelm's friendship with the dead man. Wilhelm hates the Serbians and sees the slaying as an act of aggression by the nation. He sends ambassador Lichnowsky to London to sound out Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey as to what would happen if Britain and Russia championed their ally Serba but Grey is more concerned with problems over Ireland and, of his cabinet, only Winston Churchill foresees any great danger looming. Grey wants to instigate peace talks among the nations involved but in Berlin Wilhelm and his chief of staff Von Moltke are bent on revenge. Europe is now only thirteen days away from war.
—don @ minifie-1