In the winter of 1997, Inspector O is trying to survive a famine that has devastated much of North Korea and under orders to play host to an Israeli agent. When the wife of a North Korean diplomat in Pakistan dies under suspicious circumstances, O is told to investigatebut with a curious proviso: Dont look too closely at the details, and stay away from the topic of missiles. O knows he cant avoid uncovering what he is supposed to ignore on a trail that leads him from the dark, chilly rooms of Pyongyang to an abandoned secret facility deep in the countryside and from the streets of New York to a bench on the shores of Lake Geneva, where O discovers he is up to his ears in missilesand worse. Stalked by the past and wary of the future, O is convinced there is no one he can trust and no one he cant suspect. Swiss intelligence wants him out of the country, someone else wants him dead.