An alarming, deeply reported analysis of how close--and how often--the world has come to nuclear annihilation, and why we are once again on the brink.

"We came so close" -- Major Hering's forbidden questions -- The forbidden question at the QWEST Center -- The number -- Bruce Blair : the doomsday discovery and the real danger -- Col. Yarynich's "100 nuclear wars" and the apocalypse equation -- "The ashes are still warm" : the second holocaust, Israel, and the morality of nuclear retaliation -- Iran: the "enigmatic box" and the NIE -- Endgame.