Richard "Rick" Blayne has a mission. One of the CIA's top expert on Cambodia, who escaped the country's fall to the Khmer Rouge and has monitored the ensuing genocide from Thailand ever since, he has been sent to Paris to further the CIA's plan to infiltrate the Cambodian resistance to the Hanoi-controlled puppet government in Phnom Penh.

Arriving in the middle of a Parisian summer, Rick feels out of place and uncertain if he can handle the assignment. Vying factions seek to form a guerrilla force. As he establishes contact with old Cambodian friends in both the factions vying to control the resistance, he is drawn into an operation to recruit a Russian diplomat serving in Paris.

With the help of a Thai fashion designer serving as an access agent, Rick, under the guidance of Sasha--a seasoned CIA Soviet "head hunter" and deputy chief of Paris station--moves the operation forward at a time of great upheaval and change for the Soviet Union.