At the height of a brilliant career with MI6 John Stanton's wife Jodi and family flee from all present danger to the solace of the anonymous. A marriage of deep love this leaves Stanton shattered and broken, he immerses himself in work to allay the black dog bitting at his mind.
British government powered by the psyche of an iron lady places the lives of female soldiers in harms way. John Stanton has a brilliant female operative Bella Elizabeth Fonteyn placed in his care to train in counter espionage during the later part of the cold war, the association holds a skeleton in the closet. Stanton the most effectual and disciplined operative the organisation has ever seen begins to question the merits of this social tactic, the first time he has uttered a word against authoritarianism.
Sent on a suicide mission behind the eastern block kept secret from Stanton, Bella Elizabeth Fonteyn comes home alive. What happens next will change the security of the planet.