This is the story of a university professor who has been enlisted by the FBI as an undercover agent to ferret out a leak of confidential technical information from a major American pharmaceutical firm that is ending up in a company in China. The agent and his wife, a retired FBI agent, slip into the social life of the suspect, a company employee, to determine how he transmits the information to China. Their mission includes riveting encounters with China's Ministry of State Security, the CIA, and U.S. Navy Seals; twists and blind alleys; armed kidnappers; and sadistic goons.