"Lose the game," she said. "Lose the game or everyone dies." A wave of euphoria is sweeping across the British Kingdom. Differences have been set aside and people are bound together by their devotion to the Guiding Principles of Joy and Compassion and their love for the Great Unifier - soccer. The whole world wants to be a part of it, but for Josh Pittman, the world is a place he feels he doesn't fit in. Bored, listless and somehow immune to the sporting paradise around him, he can't even muster the enthusiasm to play in goal for his local team. But when a chance encounter with a mysterious young woman leaves him with a broken nose, a stolen car and a warning that humanity is under attack from a hidden race of supernatural beings, Josh thinks he may have found his purpose in life - and someone to share it with. The only question is, what has any of it got to do with him? As the final of the grandest international tournament in history looms and strange deaths at stadiums across the globe go unreported, Josh is whisked away on a journey through time and space to uncover the truth behind mankind's very existence - and the role he is destined to play in what might just be the world's worst case of mistaken identity...