Robert Cope Harland ended his career as a British spy in an Austrian hospital, after being tortured and beaten by Czech security agents in the last days of the communist regime. He was young enough then to find a new life with the Red Cross and then with the UN. Twelve years later his UN plane crashes in mysterious circumstances at La Guardia airport, New York and Harland is the only survivor. Unwittingly he is pulled into a world of relentless intrigue - and back into his old profession. A spy's life, once blighted by the Cold War, is now threatened by the equally ruthless forces of modern espionage.