The serenity of a rural elementary school is shattered when the Civil Defense alarm warns that a nuclear attack is imminent. But before any bombs, the slow-burn of panic arrives as the children are sent scurrying home. The follow-up to the Perrys' successful David and Lisa, Ladybug, Ladybug traces with almost documentary cool the unraveling of the assumed civility that coheres a community. One of the children, a cruel twelve-year-old named Harriet, invites several classmates to share her family's bomb shelter. Harriet emerges as a sort of "lady of the flies" and when another girl, Sarah, asks for admittance to the shelter, Harriet refuses. Not popular at the time of its release, Perry's film looks at the consequences of the Atomic Age-the irrational fears and corrosive anxiety. According to Ladybug, Ladybug, the first casualty is our humanity.-Steve Seid