Receiving a handwritten manuscript of a dissident Russian novel only to find his courier murdered, Cold War operative Paul Christopher secretly arranges the publication of the novel as part of a larger plan to destabilize the Soviet system, an effort that is complicated by an affair between Christopher's wife and a famous film director.

A tale spanning the period from the late 1930s to the height of the Cold War follows Paul Christopher's struggles against the rise of Nazi totalitarianism in Berlin through his efforts to escape the machinations of an S.S. officer who would kill Christopher for exposing the man's brutal actions.

On the eve of the Inauguration the losing candidate presents proof of the crime to his opponent, the incumbent President, and demands that he stand aside. The winner refuses and takes the oath of office, thereby setting in motion what may destroy him and his party, and even bring down the Constitution. From this crisis, master storyteller Charles McCarry, author of such classic thrillers as The Tears of Autumn and The Last Supper weaves a masterpiece...

Falling in love with a famous Argentinean revolutionary's daughter who he hopes will further his ambition to exact revenge against the handlers who ended his father's career years earlier, a maverick spy is caught in a web of deceit with ties to the Cold War.