The story of Miguel Angel Baumann, whose family fled to Cuba to escape Jewish persecution by Nazis only to find it anew under Castro's communism, and how he becomes involved in the covert fight for freedom. He joins forces with the Cuban Lightning, first inside Cuba against the regime there, but then later as a member of the group that tracked down Che Guevara in Bolivia, and then later reunited with his old friend, assisting in the operation which caused the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and the economic collapse of the Soviet Union. Interspersed with Miguel Angel's story is that of the Lightning himself as he navigates the machinations of the KGB and their new protege, Vladimir Putin.