When someone starts assassinating paparazzi in three countries, MI7 sits up. Apparently, the killer is a retired SVR field-operative and former Kremlin protégé named Dmitri Vassyli Kramski. True, the Cold War is long finished, but everyone knows Vladimir Putin is as unhappy for Russia to play second fiddle on the international stage as even the most strident of his Communist predecessors. Could this be the key to the riddle? Kramski's trail leads deep into London's immigrant community, forcing his pursuers into conflict with an unknown organisation bent on protecting him. Little by little, he begins to look less like a professional assassin and more like someone plotting to scupper the foundations of Western democracy itself. To compound matters, the Russians are as baffled by him as anyone.