The book tells the story of Ted Mundy, the Pakistan-born son of a British army officer, who as a student becomes proficient in the German language.

Having been brutally beaten by West Berlin police and ejected from Germany, Mundy fails at several careers; as a teacher at an English prep school, as a newspaper reporter, a radio interviewer, and a novelist.

After the wall comes down, Sasha asks Mundy to continue engaging in geopolitics with him, but Mundy- whose marriage has collapsed as a result of his secret life- refuses, and the two part ways.

In the ensuing decade, Mundy moves to Germany and becomes a tour guide at Neuschwanstein Castle, begins dating a Turkish refugee, and considers converting to Islam to marry her and help raise her son.

After their deaths, Sasha's past with the Stasi and Mundy's Islamic sympathies are used by the CIA and right-leaning American press outlets to portray them as terrorists "with connections to Al-Qaeda", in efforts to convince the German government to support the United States in its War on Terror.