Karl Beck is a former KGB officer who defected to America at the end of the Cold War and was resettled with his new name as a Slavic Literature professor at Indiana University. Beck is sixty, but tall, athletic and a charming man of the world. He is falling in love with Cathleen; an attractive woman half his age of the History department, whose mother and grandfather had been part of the underground IRA of Northern Ireland. He eventually reveals his true past to her and also that in the last few years, he has become involved with a secret, private espionage group. While doing academic research, Beck stumbles across a lead to the location of a large cache of diamonds that had belonged to the Romanov Dynasty of Russia; jewels that had gone missing back in July, 1918 when the czar and the royal family were all assassinated -- or were they? Karl and Cathleen travel to Russia to pursue the clues and try to solve the puzzle of where the jewels had allegedly been hidden back in 1938. Complicating their quest is a Russian Mafia boss who has also learned of the prize they seek and the Russian government that would still like to see Beck dead. The couple is assisted by a number of people, including her IRA grandfather. However, within the complicated world of espionage, all is not always as it seems and Karl must figure out who are really his friends and whether he can he ever truly leave his KGB past behind him.
