In the far flung year of 1975 ("sixty years after the last and most terrible European war") Captain Gardiner, a squarejawed two-fisted Slab Thunkchest type, is the best agent that the International Police have. The world is ruled by the International Federation, you see, which some decades ago dissolved all nations (there was an imminent threat of a world war) and put them under the Federation's rule. The International Police are the enforcement arm of the Federation.