It's the summer of 1987. In the seventh year of the desperate and seemingly endless Gulf war, Iranians forces have finally achieved the great breakthrough that has brought final victory within their grasp, putting the oil-rich, pro-Western monarchies and sheikhdoms of the Gulf in instant peril and sending shock waves throughout the Middle East: They have captured the southern Iraqi port city of Basra along with a large slice of southern Iraq. The CIA's man in Teheran Hank Kutlin isn't that bothered by the news. But when 900 gung-ho Revolutionary Guards then overrun the Tipp City oil compound in nearby northern Kuwait, and threaten to begin executing the male hostages, it's a different matter - because Hank's only son along with his wife and baby daughter are trapped inside with hundreds of other western oil workers and their families. The first executions are scheduled to take place in just a few days' time. With the American and British governments doing very little to firmly confront the looming crisis, it looks like Hank is going to have to take matters into his own hands - 'go rogue' so to speak - if he's to save his son's life...but his options seem limited. That is until his close friend Jasper Hargreaves - black Vietnam war veteran, Latin scholar and former Agency employee - steps in. He has an audacious - some might even say outrageous - plan up his sleeve that just might work. But they're going to need the help of a very special lady to carry it out, and that is Jasper's beautiful Iranian girlfriend Leila Ahmadi, who works for the national carrier, Iran Air. Persuading her to join the plot shouldn't be hard as she's keen to take revenge on a powerful Iranian dignitary who has been persecuting the small religious minority to which she belongs - and this plan may provide the perfect opportunity to do just that. Meanwhile back in Cyprus, genteel British journalist Oswald Higginbothams, star of the foreign press corps, is disappointed when his paper sends a younger colleague to cover the terrifying hostage situation unfolding in Kuwait. But he's also keenly looking forward to a trip to Teheran to do one of his famous in-depth analyses on the evolution of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the eight years since the Revolution of 1979 - and even more so to catching up with old flame Susie Khorasani. Now a stewardess with Iran Air, Susie has promised to try to have herself assigned as crew for the airborne press conference of prominent Iranian clerics Oswald has been invited to attend. It's going to be quite an affair - with the Mullahs going all out to dramatise the momentous significance of their latest breakthrough and to demonstrate the futility of western backing for the Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein. What the mild-mannered intellectual cannot anticipate though is just how the workings of destiny will conspire to draw him inexorably into a web of intrigue and danger. And lurking in the background are some very sinister forces indeed... But then again, with careful planning, and with the element of surprise on their side, what could possibly go wrong?