Thirty years ago - before "The Hunt for Red October" - a young CIA analyst called Jack Ryan is sent on a mission to investigate the death of an operative looking into suspicious activities at a Swiss bank. Ryan's dogged tenacity uncovers deceit, cover up and a ruthless KGB assassin, code-named Zenith...

In the present, Russian President Valeri Volodin orders the invasion of another country as operative Jack Ryan Jr investigates Volodin's murky rise to power. When an old friend is poisoned, Ryan Jr follows the trail to Russia and uncovers the origins of an international conflict thirty years in the making - and the terrible truth behind Zenith...