Anthony Hanbury, a Canadian diplomat pursuing a desultory career, is assigned as consul to Berlin. On the surface Hanbury's assignment unfolds routinely. Behind the scenes, however, his activities generate forces of suspicion. Only in the new Berlin where the Wall is gone but East-West divisions continue, where the Cold War's remnants linger and a totalitarian regime's entrails are available for scavenging could Hanbury's fate take the calamitous turn it does.