Three years of knife-edge politics come to an abrupt end when Sir Robert Muldoon calls a snap election. The gamble fails, and David Lange's victorious Labour Party is elected on an anti-nuclear platform. On taking power they are immediately called to account by a disenchanted United States administration.

An economic crisis is averted as Sir Robert Muldoon finally hands over power. David Lange is pressured to make a firm stand on Labour's antinuclear policy. Finally accepting that there is no middle ground, he takes New Zealand into a new era, adrift from its allies. Taking on Jerry Falwell in an Oxford Union debate on the morality of nuclear weapons, David Lange emerges triumphant.