In 1969, in the battlegrounds of the Mekong Delta, Special Forces Lieutenant Jake Cazalet rescues a beautiful Frenchwoman in a reckless act of bravery and changes the entire course of his life. Nearly thirty years later, someone has discovered the truth about what really happened at River City and is ready to blackmail him. The effect on world peace could be catastrophic - Cazalet is now the President of the United States. Weeks before vital Middle East peace talks, panic breaks out in Washington when internal security is breached. In London, Brigadier Ferguson of Special Forces is contacted by an imprisoned IRA chief ready to tell all and on a remote Mediterranean island a young Frenchwoman is abducted from her home. The connection? A fanatical Jewish terrorist organisation called the Maccabees - a group so rigorously structured that they have infiltrated the intelligence and defence systems of three superpowers. They will eliminate anyone who even gets to hear of their existence. And they have so many friends in high places, they have discovered the President's secret.