Her first Foreign Service assignment - on a mission so secret her entire staff consists of one Air Force missile expert - and it has to be Litania, a backwater Mediterranean island-nation isolated so long the people haven't even heard of the USA. With grim determination, knowing the fate of the free world is in her hands, Ambassador Elizabeth Sullivan Wexford Adams sets out to sell the Litanians on "The American Way." But how does one convince a people to change their ways when they believe everything is perfect? She is succeeding until... Russians... bringing gifts and menace. Suddenly two lonely Americans find themselves engaged in a battle of wits and intrigue, a battle for licentious hearts and bewildered minds.