November 1945. John Russell is walking home through the grey streets of postwar London when his old accomplice, Soviet agent Yevgeny Shchepkin, falls into step alongside him. Shchepkin informs Russell that his masters in Moscow have decided it's time to pay them back for securing his safe passage from Russia in the last days of the war.
Russell must return to Berlin to spy on his former colleagues in the German Communist Party, reporting on any deviation from the Stalinist line. Worse, he is ordered to offer his services to the Americans -- in short, to become a double agent on Stalin's payroll.
But Russell knows too well how short the life expectancy of a double agent is. Together, he and Shchepkin, who has finally lost faith in the Soviet utopia, hatch a plan to gain their freedom.
The stakes are high, both for Russell and his girlfriend Effi, who has accompanied him to Berlin. In a world fuelled by paranoia and on the edge of a new, 'cold' war, they will need all their wits -- and some luck -- to survive.