[1] A young Chechen ex-prisoner arrives illegally in Germany, practically uneducated and destitute, but with a claim to a fortune held in a private bank.

The novel's events and characters were inspired by the real-life story of Murat Kurnaz,[2] a Turkish citizen and legal resident of Germany who, after being arrested in Pakistan in 2001, was detained and tortured in American military detention camps, first at Kandahar in Afghanistan and then at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, before being released in 2006.

He contacts a human rights organisation whose attractive young bike-riding lawyer, Annabel Richter, takes his case to a British bank in the city.

She bases her case to the owner, Tommy Brue, on a mysterious Lippizaner fund established by his father and held by the bank.

A German intelligence agent, Bachmann, who visits Annabel, is homing in on a suspicious Islamist terrorist with Chechen connections, arrested entering Sweden from Turkey in a container, who has escaped custody and found his way to Germany.

Annabel has moved Issa from the Turkish family to a new apartment she has recently bought but not occupied, but her evasive tactics seem suspicious to the followers.

As he pulls away, the taxi is boxed in by several vehicles and a group of masked men jump out of a van, grabbing and leaving with both Abdullah and Issa.