Casey Collins, a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, is on her way to Berlin for an international conference on global traffic in small arms. Casey's specialty is counterterrorism and she aches for the women and children killed worldwide by terrorists with hand-held weapons. Yet, a crushing series of events demands she shift focus to solve a more ominous problem involving a missing nuclear physicist and a supply of stolen plutonium. Casey is forced back into the field to pursue a villain who threatens everyone she holds dear. From twilight in the long-term parking lot at Dulles Airport to a sunlit afternoon in a Belarus orchard, the action winds breathlessly eastward as Casey and her small band of unlikely cohorts struggle to contain a nuclear evil let loose when the Cold War ended.