Former SAS Major Harry Maxim, reassigned from Number 10 Downing Street back to the Ministry of Defence after the demotion of his boss George Harbinger from the post of private secretary to the prime minister, is part of a security detail at Westminster Abbey for a state funeral.

Political tensions with the Soviet Union are at an all-time high over Berlin, and Maxim is worried that the gathering would be an all-too-tempting target.

Shots are fired, and a low-ranking British government minister sitting near the President is killed.

However, Maxim is far from convinced, and his investigation into the shooting takes him from London to Washington DC, (where he is reunited with MI-5 liaison officer Agnes Algar), and from there to New York City, the American Midwest and finally to East Berlin, as he unravels a conspiracy of massive proportions, which threatens to overthrow not only the British government, but all hopes for peace in Europe.

Algar is relaxed and confident when she trades sex for secret information ("gave her little all for her Service" is Agnes's humorously self-mocking phrase), but her first time with Maxim is a disappointment.