It begins one rainy dawn: Orville Brame, prominent lawyer and president of the American Bar Association, is found shot through the heart, slumped in a monorail, silently circling downtown Sydney. The next day, the body of a security guard is fished out of the harbor. During the ensuing investigation, a talented rookie cop is ruthlessly gunned down. The trail Inspector Scobie Malone uncovers leads to betrayal—betrayal between brothers, when jealousy causes estrangement and murder, and betrayal between countrymen, when cynicism triumphs over patriotism and sparks a multimillion-dollar international intrigue.