The story centers on the politics of the Russian Federation in 1999, with an extremist party close to seizing power. Former CIA agent Jason Monk is drawn out of retirement to confront an old nemesis, Colonel Anatoli Grishin, a brutal ex-KGB officer responsible for the deaths of four of Monk's colleagues, and his employer, Igor Komarov, a charismatic demagogue with a deadly, secret agenda for the new Russia.