The two main characters are Mick and Hackett who spend a lot of time in bars in Dalkey. After sea swimming they meet and befriend an ingenious theologian and scientist who entertains them in his well hidden home. He has developed a theory about time being strangely local and dependent upon atmosphere. He exploits the theory to age his whiskey, creating a spirit that seems to have been aged for many decades in just a few hours. The scientist De Selby, then reveals a plan to destroy the people of the world by removing all the oxygen from the air.