First in the Ian Quayle spy novel series! Ian Quayle is a low level agent within a branch of MI6. He is a playboy, a gentleman, a lover, and a genius at research. He is totally fluent in five foreign languages and quite comfortable in several others. He expertly handles his beloved Mini-Cooper 'S' at speeds well over 100 and can get a great table at any decent restaurant on the Continent. Of course, he is incredibly handsome, which is why women throw themselves at him constantly, despite the complaint by his sometime lady friend, Wendy, who maintains he hasn't a clue how to satisfy a partner. This natural attraction only helps his inflated ego.

Now after 16 years of being a researcher, Ian Quayle is picked to go into the field to investigate the assassination of a prominent Italian general in Rome, the probable work of a terrorist band. But he soon finds himself on the firing line and in over his head against a secret and deadly organization of information traffickers that has manipulated world events for the last 200 years. And a group that will do anything to maintain its secrecy.