It was his first solo novel for eleven years (not counting a novel written with Charles Rodda under the pseudonym Eliot Reed), and Ambler was worried about producing a bad novel, but did not.

[1] The book is a courtroom drama based on the show trial of Bulgarian politician Nikola Petkov.

[5] Foster is an English playwright who is hired by an American newspaper to visit an unnamed East European country, to report on the show trial of politician Yordan Deltchev.

Deltchev had gone to great lengths to secure the Anglo-American, rather than Soviet, occupation of the country after the end of the Second World War.

In addition, he is accused of being part of a plot by the Officer Corps Brotherhood secret society to assassinate the country's leader, Vukashin.

Foster is met by Georghi Pashik, his employer's local representative, who runs a press bureau.