The history of America's income-tax law can be found in the 16th Amendment to the Constitution. But someone has unearthed a secret that calls that law into question. Now it's up to Cotton Malone to learn the truth. . . Once a member of an elite intelligence division within the Justice Department, Malone is now a retired bookshop owner in Denmark. But when his former boss, Stephanie Nelle, asks him to track a rogue North Korean who may have acquired some top secret Treasury Department files-the kind that could bring the United States to its knees-Malone is vaulted into a harrowing twenty-four-hour chase that begins on the canals in Venice and ends in the remote highlands of Croatia.


從美國憲法第十六條修正案便可知曉美國所得稅的發展史。然而，有人從中發現了一個不可告人的秘密，讓這條法案備受質疑。如今得靠卡騰．馬隆查出事情真相了。馬隆曾是美國法務部高階情報部門的成員，如今退休，在丹麥開了間書店。有一天，他接到昔日長官史蒂芬尼．奈爾的請託，要他幫忙追查一名北韓嫌疑份子，據悉這名北韓人手握美國財政部的最高機密，足以讓美國俯首稱臣。馬隆於是一路從威尼斯的大運河，追查到克羅埃西亞的荒涼高地，艱苦的二十四小時追捕行動就此展開。