Evan Michael Tanner is a man open to curious opportunities. Happily he has a lot of time to pursue them because he hasn't slept a wink since the unfortunate military accident when an errant piece of shrapnel destroyed his brain's sleep centre. Devoted to defending lost causes and beautiful women, he possesses an array of talents and connections so singular that he's a natural for perilous top-secret missions - the sort that will retroactively cease to exist if something goes wrong.

This time, enlisted by an undercover agency so secret that neither it nor its jovial chief has a name, Tanner heads for Czechoslovakia, where he must engineer the kidnap of a dying man. But first he finds himself leaping from a moving train, tangling with an amorous blonde, and trying to act convincing as the featured speaker at a neo-Nazi rally.