A near-future political thriller set in 2029 during Trump's third term. When North Korea launches a nuclear missile at Beijing, a cascade of retaliations draws in China, India, Pakistan, Iran, and Russia across seven days of escalating catastrophe. An 82-year-old American president with an artificial heart attempts to stop a war that keeps expanding beyond anyone's control, while Ukraine - largely ignored by the great powers - deploys weapons and strategies no one anticipated. Told across fourteen countries and more than a hundred characters, from generals in hardened bunkers to civilians who never made it home. Shield of Ashes examines how rational actors making reasonable decisions in sequence can produce outcomes no one intended and no one can stop.