James Tristram is an aging secret operative, soft of body but sharp of mind. Sent by English spymaster Cornish to aid an uprising against the Polish government and its Russian sponsors, Tristram discovers the mission is a ploy. The real plot, concocted by Russian Stalinists with the aid of a long-time mole in the British secret service, aims to discredit the government of the Gorbachev-like general secretary of the Russian Communist Party. Appalled, Tristram sets out on a lonely effort to prevent the destruction of the Polish underground and the discrediting of the reformers.