Mary Ashley, a bright young professor and mother of two, is appointed US ambassador to an Iron Curtain country. But even before she takes up her post, unseen and powerful enemies – including the sinister Angel, assassin par excellence – plot her destruction.

From the White House to the romance of Paris, from Rome to the shady menace of Budapest, the action races.        

Two men are by Mary's side: Mike Slade, her tough deputy chief of mission and the courteous French doctor, Louis Desforges. But soon she comes to believe that one of them is out to kill her...