In the course of the book's plot, most British characters move to the United States and become involved in its politics, rather than the British ones. Unlike the first two volumes, which gave considerable attention to British politics and charted the rise of the British Labor Party to prominence, culminating with the party's victory under Clement Attlee in 1945, this subject is nearly absent from the present volume. And a family split apart by the construction of the Berlin wall is eventually re-united the night that wall comes down.

Characters in East Berlin and Moscow work (under five different Soviet leaders), subtly at first and then more overtly, to bring about the start of the fall of Communism. Characters in the US work (under six presidents) to overcome prejudice and discrimination and to win the Cold War.

Others tour the world as reporters or aides to major political figures. The novel also covers a range of personal events. Kennedy, the Vietnam War, the Watergate scandal and the Solidarity movement in Poland. These include the civil rights movement in the US, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassinations of President John F. The novel covers a range of world events during the period, often from multiple points of view. Once again, the major characters are the children of the characters who were seen in the first two novels. The story follows characters from Germany, Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union, who become linked by events from just before the construction of the Berlin wall in 1961 to that wall’s demise in 1989 (and in an epilogue to the night of Barack Obama’s election in 2008).

The novel's characters become involved in a number of the most significant global events during the period, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the British Invasion, the Kennedy Administration, the Watergate scandal, and the Civil Rights Movement. The novel tells the story of the third generation of families developed in the first two novels and located in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War. It is the third book in the Century Trilogy, after Fall of Giants and Winter of the World.

Edge of Eternity is a historical and family saga novel by Welsh-born author Ken Follett, published in 2014.

Ken follett century trilogy books