Charlie Stone, a brilliant analyst for the CIA, has been summoned to read the transcript of a tape recording smuggled out of the Soviet Union by a mole. He finds himself delving into a conspiracy whose roots lie in the first days of the Cold War, plunging him into a nightmare of violene and paranoia. Framed for brutal murder, Stone finds himself in a cat-and-mouse pursuit across the United States, Europe, and finally, the Soviet Union, which, for the first time in history, has been seized by an unnerving wave of terrorism. Within the Kremlin, a secret group that calls itself the Moscow Club is laying groundwork for an ingenious, violent coup d'etat which will topple the Kremlin leadership from within.