Stone Barrington has returned to Paris to attend to some business concerns, and finds himself embroiled in high-stakes trouble on both sides of the pond. An old enemy is still in hot pursuit, and this time he has a powerful local person on his side: a man with his own ax to grind against Stone. And back in the United States, the rumor mill threatens to derail a project of vital importance not just to Stone but to the nation. Never before has Stone faced threats from so many directions at once.