In London, Rome, and Paris–world capitals of art, glamour, and intrigue–the fundamental equations of money and power never change. What is about to change is the life of one haunted ex-spy who has not quite come in from the cold.

Behind Harry Strand is a career in American intelligence that he wants to forget and a wife, killed in an automobile accident, he can't stop mourning. Harry is an art dealer, the profession that he used as his cover during his years of spying.

Then Mara Song enters his life, sharing the lap pool of an exclusive club where Harry swims alone every morning. For weeks they swim together, day after day, never speaking, never meeting, until she disappears. A month later Mara walks into his office with a business proposition: help her sell an extraordinary portfolio of drawings by modern masters. Harry can't resist the art...or the woman.

One night in Rome Harry walks into Mara's home and finds her television is on, a videocassette visible in the VCR slot. When he pushes it in, he sees a nighttime surveillance tape–and with heart-wrenching horror, he witnesses his wife's final, terrifying moments before her death.

The cold war may be over, but Harry's war has just begun.