In an alternate present time, the Soviet Union brings an end to World War II by dropping the first atomic bomb on Berlin, redefining history. As a result, the Soviet Union would never collapse, instead using its newfound clout to expand the Iron Curtain across all of Europe and most of the Middle East. After the Soviets send "military advisors" throughout the Third World and succeed in placing mid-range nuclear missiles in Cuba, they set the stage for the invasion of the United States.
Plumbers and brothers Christopher and Troy Stone are on the job in the apartment of Isabella Angelina, the leader of the anti-Soviet group "Warning Against Reds". Helicopters suddenly appear and begin shooting into buildings as they fly through the streets and the apartment is broken into by Soviet soldiers. Troy is taken prisoner by the Soviets, mistaken as Isabella's boyfriend; however, the soldiers leave without finding Chris. He is promptly recruited by Mr. Jones, whom he rescues from a Soviet officer. Mr. Jones leads him, along with a talkative man named Phil Bagzton, to a hiding place within the cavernous sewer system beneath the city streets.
Back on the surface, New York has fallen to the Soviet invasion. Newscasters and other undesirables are sent to Alaska for "reeducation". Tatiana Kempinsky, a Soviet propaganda reporter, replaces their newscasting with broadcasts from the Soviet Armed Forces Network (SAFN), a Soviet-run news channel. New York police stations, harbor facilities, schools, and other government buildings become make-shift bases for the Soviet forces. Civilians largely go into hiding. The US military has been routed, and the federal government, including the President, is arrested and tried on charges of crimes against humanity. They are promptly replaced by a Soviet occupational government led from New York's Governors Island by General Tatarin of the Red Army...