Arthur Hailey’s "Overload" Summary

This industrial novel, written in 1979, centers on the Californian energy corporation Golden State Systems, which struggles to prevent a blackout amid capacity shortages, depleting oil reserves, and bureaucratic pressure. Haley details the mechanics of power grid operation, intertwining technical regulations for electricity generation with the social conflicts of the era.

Sabotage at a power plant

A summer heat wave has gripped California, overloading air conditioners and pumps. Vice President of Planning Nim Goldman spends his days in the underground control room, where all hot reserves have been exhausted. At that moment, a powerful explosion rocks the largest steam plant, Big Lil. Four employees are killed, including chief engineer Walter Talbot. The automatic control system protects the power grid by shutting down components, instantly plunging a vast swath of the state into darkness.

Goldman organizes the restoration of power. He meets with reporters and says, "A power distribution system experiencing an unplanned, widespread blackout is like a children’s game of ’Match the Cards."

That evening, Nim goes to pay his respects to Talbot’s widow, Ardith. A sudden burst of intimacy connects them in the empty house, leaving him with a sense of guilt toward his late friend. Meanwhile, the underground group "Friends of Freedom," led by Yorgos Archambault, claims responsibility for the explosion. Corporation CEO Eric Humphrey assigns Nim to oversee the property protection department. Together with former Marine Harry London, the vice president sets out on a raid through the residential area of Brookside, uncovering gas and electricity thefts. The perpetrators turn out to be owners of auto repair shops, supermarkets, and respectable doctors.

A few days later, booby-trapped letters arrive at headquarters. London pulls Nim out of his office just before the explosion. Company president Fraser Fenton is killed.

Confrontation at the hearings

Nim organizes a press trip to geothermal plants in the mountains and the site of a future pumped-storage hydroelectric power station at Devil’s Gate. Tragedy strikes the power workers’ camp: a technician’s son climbs a power line pole to retrieve a kite. The deceased Talbot’s son, Wally Jr., saves the child, at the cost of severe burns and the loss of his genitals.

In the city, Davey Birdson, leader of the "Light and Power for the People" movement, makes a secret deal with the Sequoia environmental club. Environmentalist Laura Bo Carmichael gives Birdson twenty-five thousand dollars for the protest campaign. Birdson soon redirects the funds to Archambault for the purchase of new explosives.

The state commission rejects the company’s request to raise tariffs. The board of directors is forced to freeze dividend payments, sending the stock price plummeting. Enraged shareholders storm the annual meeting in the ballroom of the St. Charles Hotel. A rotten tomato is thrown at Humphrey.

Hearings on the Tunip coal plant begin. Conservationists furiously defend the rare lousewort flower and the kangaroo mouse. After a series of mocking attacks from Birdson, the vice president loses his composure. He shouts at his opponent: "Ultimately, you’re going to make people suffer: from desperate power shortages, from mass unemployment, from the fact that so many things, big and small, simply won’t work without electricity."

The corporation’s management removes Goldman from his role as official spokesman. Retired Supreme Court Justice Paul Yale takes over as public spokesman.

Meeting disruption and hotel fire

Nim’s marriage is falling apart: his wife, Ruth, demands a separation. The real reason for her estrangement soon becomes clear: her progressing melanoma and secret chemotherapy treatments. Shaken, Nim draws closer to his wife, lavishing her with care, and agrees to prepare their son for his bar mitzvah.

Archambault and Berdson are planning a major attack against the energy industry’s leadership. The terrorists fill thirty-six fire extinguishers with dynamite and gasoline and transport them to the Christopher Columbus Hotel before the National Electric Power Institute convention.

The leader’s girlfriend, Yvette, can’t bear the weight of the violence. She hands over tapes of conversations to California Examiner reporter Nancy Molino, then blows herself up on a hill. The journalist listens to the tapes and alerts city services.

That night, the police organize an emergency evacuation of two thousand guests. Nim manages to get Ruth and the children out of the hotel. Bomb disposal experts throw hazardous cylinders into the bay, but some of the charges explode. Assistant Chief of Security Art Romeo, who carried the remaining explosives outside, is killed. Several floors are destroyed by fire. Police arrest Berdson in his own home, and the gunmen at the safe house are killed during the assault. Archambault goes into hiding in North Castle.

Junction by the river

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries announces a boycott of supplies to the United States. The company’s reserves are limited to three weeks. Humphrey is forced to set a date for the first rolling blackouts.

Nim enlists the company’s analytical team to help find the fugitive terrorist. Power engineers send out bogus questionnaires with hidden luminescent numbers throughout the North Castle area. The arrogant Archambault sends off the completed questionnaire, revealing the address of his hideout. An hour before the SWAT team arrives, the criminal leaves for the La Mission power plant.

The perpetrator dons a wetsuit and dives from an inflatable boat, intending to blow up the river’s cooling pumps. The plant’s manager notices the cut filter mesh and immediately shuts down the power units. The blades of the giant pump pull the terrorist into the depths, tearing his body apart.

A sudden emergency shutdown at the station collapses the power grid. At that moment, Nim’s paralyzed friend, Karen Sloan, is left alone at home. She fails to switch the respirator over to the charged battery because her assistants are trapped in the dead elevator. Karen suffocates just minutes before the backup generators start.

A devastated Goldman returns to his office, where Nancy Molyneux is waiting. She hands him a fresh government teletype tape and invites him to her home while the city prepares for the inevitable scheduled blackouts.