The year is 1954, and Joseph Stalin is dead. As the ruthless Laurenti Beria, head of the KGB, plots to succeed him, another drama is taking place in a distant part of the Soviet empire. United States and British commandoes have begun a mission to overthrow the Soviet-controlled government of Albania, but it is doomed to failure from the outset—jinxed by a traitor.

In the aftermath of the disaster, CIA super spy Blackford Oakes pursues his adversary from a covert camp for training murderers to Buckingham Palace, from a KGB hideout in Stockholm to the very doors of the Kremlin. The result is a satisfying tale that brings this episode in the conflict between the West and the Soviet Bloc to a summary conclusion.