Michael Osbourne, now an embittered ex-CIA officer, is pulled into the troubled peace and politics of Northern Ireland after the treaty between Protestants and Catholics has supposedly taken effect.Osbourne's father-in-law, former Senator Douglas Cannon, has been appointed American ambassador to Britain, and he becomes the target of the ruthless assassin Jean-Paul Delaroche, who almost killed Osbourne and his wife, Elizabeth, in the climax of Silva's last novel. Here, the two men face off in a decisive battle, with the fate of Northern Ireland hanging in the balance.