A Pope is dead; his successor has just survived an assassination attempt; death is meted out in the South Atlantic with the explosive fury of Exocet missiles; a disgraced banker is found hanging under a London bridge; a row of US servicemen's coffins is lined up in the Caribbean heat of Grenada ...

The events at first seem unconnected, but are linked by their shocking violence. And it is these events that take Jack Morgan back to the Caribbean island where the woman he was to have married, Anna Hapsburg, is fighting for survival. Morgan has been drummed out of the Navy on trumped-up charges, and Anna's husband, Max, is deeply implicated not only in Morgan's fll from grace, but also in an international network of shady deals that tie in with the recent events.

Together, Morgan and Anna uncover a deviously camouflaged trail that will lead them to the rotten core of a worldwide conspiracy that goes to the top of the seemingly respectable governments and religious institutions ...