November 1945. John Russell is walking home through the the grey streets of postwar London when Soviet agent Yevgeny Shchepkin falls into step beside him. Shchepkin informs Russell that his masters in Moscow have decided it's time to pay them back for securing his safe exit from Russia in the last days of the war. Russell must return to Berlin to spy on his former colleagues in the German Communist Party, reporting on any deviation from the Stalinist line. Worse, he is ordered to offer his services to the Americans, in short, to become a double agent on Stalin's payroll.