When he learns of the death of an old friend Matt Shepherd decides to attend the funeral service despite having been out of the country for over twenty years following an operation in Helsinki to recover stolen NATO documents which had nearly gone disastrously wrong because of his serious error of judgement. That together with the death of his wife whilst away had resulted in him questioning his capabilities and priorities and resigning he had walked away from his old life and friends preferring his own company and the occasional bottle. Whilst at the crematorium he meets up with Don Collins who had been his partner in Helsinki and discovers that he now heads a secret Government Department. Collins shows him positive proof that his friend had not drowned in an accident on Menorca as reported but had actually been murdered by a clandestine group that deals in anything ranging from gun running and drugs right through to promoting international terrorism. Finding out the friendship between the two men and knowing that Shepherd is probably his last chance of finding the people behind the group Collins entices him to find out who was responsible and hopefully lead to them being apprehended. Shepherd is a man who believes that fate governs your life and as there is nothing that one can do to alter things always knew that one day he would have to re-enter the secret and dangerous world that he had escaped from and agrees but on the proviso that he is allowed to do it on his own terms without interference. With the help of an old friend and a mysterious woman who insists she owes him a debt from his past he follows a series of obscure clues that are related to old Slavic Pagan Gods and Roman Emperors and by a process of elimination as well as luck manages to uncover the identities of those people responsible for the murder but before he can get to them they are themselves all killed. Realising that whoever runs the group is trying to close down the organisation by liquidating anybody who could identify him Shepherd knows he is in a race against time and his determination to succeed leads him to uncover some unpalatable truths and worse still that one can never be certain who are friends and who are enemies.