As viewed through the eyes of a presidential aide, an inside look at the intense high stakes battle that raged within the U.S. government -- between the Kennedys, the CIA and the Pentagon -- as the world stood at the brink of nuclear war. The true story focuses on how President Kennedy, his brother Bobby, and the U.S. government responded to the discovery of offensive nuclear weapons in Cuba--and the life-or-death tug-of-war that ensued between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. during those thirteen days of crisis in October 1962. The political saga moves from battles in the White House to the skies above Cuba, where U.S. planes dodge Soviet fire; to the high seas, where a showdown between the U.S. and Soviet naval ships threatens to trigger war; to the massive military preparations that presage war.