The first week of January 1941 brings severe cold and snow across Britain, worsening life in bomb-damaged London, where many people still lack heat and intact windows. Even comfortable places such as Claridge's are hard to heat. The frozen weather frames a week in which Churchill faces a series of administrative and political frustrations.

Churchill's first major problem is Lord Beaverbrook. Wanting tighter control over endangered imports such as food, steel, and other supplies threatened by German U-boat attacks, Churchill creates an Import Executive and asks Beaverbrook to lead it while also remaining minister of aircraft production. Churchill flatters Beaverbrook and says the task is vital to the state's survival, but Beaverbrook rejects the offer, says he is "the cat that walks alone," and tenders his resignation from aircraft production as well. Churchill answers sharply that resignation now would look like desertion and personally wound him, because Beaverbrook's drive had been crucial to fighter output and to Churchill's own confidence.

Churchill is also angered by breaches of secrecy. He learns that American correspondent Helen Kirkpatrick has sent secret information about Vichy France to her newspaper after hearing it at a Ditchley dinner, where Ève Curie had indiscreetly mentioned it. Together with another leak involving secret aircraft details in an American aviation magazine, the incident prompts Churchill to order a new push for wartime secrecy, tighter circulation of sensitive material, and stricter limits on what reporters can learn. John Colville, realizing that his own detailed diary contains dangerous information, decides not to destroy it but to lock it away more carefully. That same day, Colville accompanies Churchill on a tour of efforts to bombproof the Cabinet War Rooms, where Churchill promptly steps into wet cement.

A further disappointment comes from Mr. Justice Singleton's inquiry into the comparative strength of the RAF and Luftwaffe. Churchill had hoped the investigation would settle ongoing disputes, but Singleton's interim report instead shows how muddled the numbers are. He cannot reconcile ministry figures, thousands of RAF aircraft remain unaccounted for, and he can say only that German air strength is probably not as high as Air Staff Intelligence claims. Churchill is left exasperated that the Air Ministry cannot produce clear records even of British aircraft.

By January 6, Beaverbrook is still insisting that he wants to leave, claiming his usefulness is over, but Churchill writes again in increasingly emotional terms and refuses to let him go. The clash proves largely theatrical, part of the volatile but productive rhythm of their friendship, and in the end Beaverbrook stays as minister of aircraft production, though not as head of the Import Executive. The week closes on brighter news: British forces continue to succeed in Libya, Roosevelt publicly backs Lend-Lease in his State of the Union and outlines the Four Freedoms, and Churchill learns that Roosevelt is sending his close confidant Harry Hopkins to London. Churchill goes to bed encouraged, while Pamela Churchill begins the year lonely without Randolph and thinking about gas protection for baby Winston.