Early autumn, 1991. Croatia and Slovenia officially declared independence from Yugoslavia, and war is imminent between the Croats and the Serbs. Department VI of the UDBA has been dismantled, while the Yugoslav government scrambles to protect the State. In the midst of the political maelstrom, secret policeman Marko della Torre gets caught in an intricate web woven by the CIA and members of the Croat nationalist movement. They enlist della Torre to make contact with a man living in the shadows: the ex-UDBA agent who assassinated Olof Palme, the former prime minister of Sweden.