Former intelligence officer Harry Strand, a widower, has started a new life as an art dealer and has fallen in love with Mara Song, a beautiful young Asian art collector. But Harry"s peaceful world is shattered when he discovers a shocking videotape of his wife"s death in Mara"s tape collection. Instinctively, Harry knows the hard questions created by this discovery can only be answered if he resurrects old secrets from his intelligence career, secrets that he hoped would stay forever buried. From Rome to Paris to London, Strand will strike bargains with old enemies and find himself fleeing from old allies. Once again, deception becomes his talisman as he learns the painful truth that a secret agent can never retire - and never surrender.