Spy turned art restorer Gabriel Allon is trying to resume his honeymoon in the secluded hills of Umbria with his new wife, Chiara, when shocking news reaches him from London.

The defector and former Russian intelligence officer, who saved Gabriel's life in Moscow Rules, has vanished without a trace. British intelligence suspect the defector was always a double agent, but Gabriel is convinced otherwise.

Gabriel and his team find themselves in a deadly duel of nerve and wits with one of the world's most ruthless men: the murderous Russian oligarch and arms dealer Ivan Kharkov.

It will take Gabriel from a quiet mews in London to the shores of Lake Como, to the glittering streets of Geneva and Zurich and, finally, to a heart-stopping climax in the snowbound birch forests of Russia.

Faced with the prospect of losing the one thing he holds most dear, Gabriel will be tested in ways he never imagined possible.