The Trigger starts in the early to mid 21st century. A group of scientists invent, by accident, a device that detonates all nitrate-based explosive in its vicinity, thus providing good protection against most known modern conventional weapons. The first half of the book explores the reactions of society, government and the scientists themselves as the latter attempt to ensure that their invention will only be used for peaceful ends. It also traces the scientists' slow progress in understanding the science behind their invention.
The second half of the book begins when the science is sufficiently well-understood that a second device can be built - one that does not detonate explosives, but merely renders them permanently harmless. This second half ends with an almost utopian promise of an at-last peaceful world. The promise is shattered 30 years later, in the epilogue, when a research student realises that the same science that renders explosives, biological and chemical weapons, and nuclear weapons inert, is equally capable of neutralising DNA, so that the perfect weapon for peace becomes also the perfect weapon of the assassin.
