Twenty-six years ago, Dr. Cathy Ryan restored the eyesight of a young Bosnian girl who had been injured during an attack in the Bosnian War. Today, her son Jack Ryan Jr. has agreed to track down the young woman and deliver a letter from his mother. What he finds shocks them both.

The helpless child has grown into a remarkable woman. Aida Curic is a self-possessed beauty with a big heart and an even bigger secret who runs a controversial refugee agency near Sarajevo. Jack finds himself deeply drawn to both her and her country, but soon finds himself in the crosshairs of the seething ethnic tensions and ancient blood feuds of the Balkans, the region of Europe where empires go to die. If Jack can't navigate the world of secret service agencies, special operators and local mafias to save Aida, Sarajevo will prove the be the fuse that lights the next world war.