For ten years, a U.S. Navy sailor, code-name PYTHON, spies for the Soviets. All U.S. intelligence agencies continually fail at their attempts to discover the identities of PYTHON and his Soviet Controller. Then, a dead body and U.S. classified messages are found in a wrecked car at the bottom of a ravine near Madrid. The messages are traced to a U.S. Navy warship. The Defense Intelligence Agency and The Office of Naval Intelligence fail to uncover PYTHON's identity and activities aboard the warship. Dissatisfied and frustrated over the string of failures to find PYTHON, The Chief of Naval Operations permits ONI to implement a bold and unconventional program for recruiting ONI counterintelligence agents. ONI's Lieutenant Commander Brad Watson recruits a young sailor named Rigney Page to find PYTHON. At first, Rigney Page sees his mission as just one of life's adventures to satisfy self-serving needs. Then, he discovers another side of himself. During his search for PYTHON, he meets several women who teach him about commitment and tolerance and who elevate his sexual senses to higher levels. Rigney's adventure takes him to a Navy Guided Missile Cruiser that is on patrol in the Mediterranean. He renews and old friendship, and he makes some sinister enemies. His search for PYTHON comes to a brutal confrontation in a quiet beach town in southern Italy.