Clive Franklin, a Russian language expert in the Foreign Office, is unexpectedly summoned to Moscow to act as translator for the British Prime Minister. His life is turned upside down when, after more than a decade, he discovers that his former lover, Marina Volina, is now the Russian President's interpreter. At the embassy, Clive learns of a Russian plan to cut the undersea cables connecting the United States to the United Kingdom, which would cripple...