An American soldier called Robert Hamilton is kidnapped in Afghanistan, and taken over the border into Tajikistan. He manages to kill his captors, and get a short message out, which is picked up by an American military satellite. By the time an American team arrives there is no trace of the soldier, and the transmitter has been smashed.Without help the soldier will die, but nobody knows where he is, and satellite searches fail to turn up anything useful. The soldier's uncle, Frank Hamilton is a retired three star general, and in papers left by his grandfather there is the name of a man who may be able to help. The tales told about this man almost defy belief. All Frank Hamilton has is a telephone number, and the name of a man who was once referred to as "A Dangerous Scotsman".This man's name is Duncan McNeill, and there is something that enemies coming up against him could never anticipate - Duncan McNeill knows magic. Also working with McNeill is something that looks like a woman, but is actually a magic spell, and she is extremely dangerous.