The CIA is informed of an IRAassassin being hired by the KGB to kill the reformist Soviet General Secretary and enlists Stoner, an agent retired for several years, to go to the Soviet satellite state and check the reliability of Vlasek, the plot informant. Stoner, an ex-alcoholic with financial troubles, is not told of the assassination plot but agrees to go despite grieving the suicide of his wife there 10 years earlier.
Stoner only learns of the plot and runs into difficulty when Vlasek is killed trying to leave the country with him. He stays to verify the plot but his problems are then complicated by the renewal of an affair with Anna, a Russian he knew 10 years earlier, as he shelters with her and tries to convince her to defect. In the meantime, a committee of U.S. policymakers struggle over whether or not to inform the Soviet leadership about the KGB's plan, and the plot leader Tulayev enlists retired KGB agent Szaz to identify and hunt down Stoner.
