Treasure hunter, Steve Hendrick dives on the sunken Japanese ship Awa Maru, which was sunk by mistake by the U.S. Navy in 1945. This was a real incident - the U.S. Navy submarine commander was court martialed, and the United States apologized for this terrible event. Steve's quest for sunken treasure has cost him dearly. His brother was murdered by other divers who were also diving on the wreck. Steve doggedly continues his search but is confronted by pirates, the Chinese Navy, Russian SVR agents, and a Japanese terrorist who thinks he's a reincarnated Samurai warrior. In the process he meets a mysterious woman, Maggie Ramsey, who was a captive of the pirates. Steve finds a mysterious cylinder on the wreck of the Awa Maru, containing a message from Joseph Stalin, the head of the Soviet Union at that time, to the Prime Minister of Japan urging the Japanese to remain in the war against the United States. Stalin promises nuclear weapons to use against the Americans even though the Soviet Union didn't have any such weapons at that time. What is the significance of the message and why are the terrorists, and especially Maggie, so interested in it? Who is she working for? This leads to the desperate confrontation with the Japanese terrorists who intend to obliterate Tokyo and kill the heads of state at a G8 economic conference, which are the heads of state of the United States, Japan. United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Russia, and the European Union. Steve and Maggie race to stop the Japanese terrorists from destroying Tokyo and plunging the world into a devastating crisis.