Under the Mediterranean sun, a drama begins in a cafe courtyard in Málaga. For Ian Ferrier, an employee of the United States Space Agency on a vacation visit to his old friend Jeff Reid, it means the startling discovery that Reid is not just a wine exporter, but also a CIA operative, charged with smuggling communist defectors to the West. Events take a disastrous turn for the worse when Ferrier, a stranger both to Spain and to the deadly world of espionage, is forced to take sole charge of a high-ranking KGB agent.

Alone in an beguiling but alien country, he can afford no mistakes when choosing between friend and foe…