[1][2][3] Dr. Christopher 'Fluke' Kelso, a British professor of Soviet history, attends a conference in Moscow where his lecture is interrupted by protestors from 'Aurora', a faction of Communist hardliners.
He is approached by elderly Papu Rapava, who explains that as a young soldier in 1953, he escorted Lavrentiy Beria to Joseph Stalin's deathbed at his Kuntsevo Dacha.
He questions powerful politician Vladimir Mamantov, Aurora's leader and a former KGB agent; this brings Kelso to the attention of FSB Major Suvorin, who has him followed.
Aware he is being tailed, Kelso slips away from Suvorin's plainclothes officer at the Hotel Ukraina, and finds Rapava's estranged daughter Zinaida at the club where she works.
Inside the toolbox, the notebook is revealed to be the journal of Anna, a young woman from Archangel selected to work for high-ranking officials in Moscow under Stalin.
Stealing O'Brian's car, Zinaida and Kelso return to her apartment, where she subdues one of Mamantov's henchmen and recovers her stash of money before they drive to Archangel.
At his remote cabin, Josef presents Kelso and O'Brian with a suitcase of Stalin's belongings, and the passports and bloody written "confessions" from previous visitors he believed to be spies.
Having orchestrated Kelso's "discovery" of the notebook—from arranging the Moscow conference to buying Beria's house to tipping off O'Brian—Mamantov admits that Rapava's theft of the notebook and the military's interference were an unexpected "glitch" in his plan.
DVD credits order Brian Gallagher wrote on MovieWeb: "the thriller has something for everyone: The game of Craig, a mysterious story, lively dialogues, some action and romance.