Solidarity strikes are breaking out all over Communist Poland and Soviet forces seem set for a crackdown. A small group of student activists have taken over the vice-rector's office in a Warsaw university. One is Tom, a visiting student from Belfast, whose love for a girl from Gdansk is bad for them all. Another is Alex, the journalist whose family of agitators have secrets of their own. Then there is Michalski, their enigmatic leader. Over a decade later, on the brink of a new millennium and with Putin poised to take control in the Kremlin, the friends are reunited as Michalski seeks to become his country's president. How will the decisions he took during the strike – and while awaiting exile in the Europejski hotel – affect his chances now? And Tom – with a letter and a train ticket for Gdansk in his pocket – has his own decision to make.