In 1946, the early stage of the Cold War, an atomic scientist is murdered in Atlantic City where he'd come to play poker. The FBI borrow Dave Levitan, an ex-ACPD cop working for the Coast Guard, to lead the local investigation. It's up to Levitan to determine whether the murder was a street crime gone bad or something far worse. If the scientist's murder was connected to his work, it would mean a disastrous breach of security at the highest level. The victim had worked with Einstein and John Von Neumann at the Institute for Advanced Study. Levitan uncovers a connection between the victim and IKOR, a group of pro-Soviet Jewish Communists. Levitan had soldiered in the Spanish Civil War and has a history with groups like IKOR that allows him to gain the confidence of IKOR member Judith Horowitz. Her lover has gone missing. When Levitan's investigation identifies the lover as an Army sergeant posted to the atomic weapons development facility Oak Ridge, Tennessee, all hell breaks loose. The Army's General Leslie Groves claims jurisdiction, as does the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover, as does Secretary of State George Marshall, whose own investigators had tracked a U.N. "diplomat" suspected of being a Red Army Colonel to the hotel where the murder occurred. Levitan is at ground zero in a war between Washington titans. It requires all of his skill to navigate the treacherous political waters and solve the case.