Kuwait 1960. With Soviet backing Iraq plans to invade. Gordon Carlisle lives in the expat community of Ahmadi with little to worry about other than when to next don his dinner jacket. Following contact by an MI6 agent everything changes. Even marriage to his beautiful new wife Anita breaks down as he becomes a suspect in a chain of deaths in the Protectorate. Only after he meets visiting author Ian Fleming does he fully understand the complex web of betrayal and murder at work as Iraq assembles its forces.