Unusually for the Allon series, this novel is a sequel to the previous one (Moscow Rules), with many of the same characters, in particular the antagonist, Ivan Kharkov.

The beginning finds Gabriel Allon and his new wife Chiara resuming the honeymoon in rural Umbria which was interrupted by the events of Moscow Rules; Gabriel is again restoring a painting for the Vatican, this time Guido Reni's "Crucifixion of St Peter."

To rescue her, he must call not only on his own Israeli team of specialists but on the highest levels of the American, British, and (thanks to a massive bribe) Russian governments.

Because of the personal element in his pursuit of his wife's kidnappers, Gabriel Allon kills an unusually high number of Russians, not only in the process of discovering her whereabouts and rescuing her, but also in methodically assassinating eleven ex-KGB operatives living in Europe who participated in the two abductions.

This is set against the discovery of a mass grave of tens of thousands of Russian citizens slaughtered by Joseph Stalin in his Great Purge of 1937.