Can England be subverted? Following his very public failure over his Cuban adventure Soviet boss Nikita Khrushchev turns his attentions to America's main ally. Rudenko, a brilliant KGB England-watcher devises a subtle campaign depending for success on a seemingly trivial but fatal weakness: the English have forgotten their own history. Blackmail, treason, the clash of committed ideologies all play their part, but because all sides ignore one fundamental law of human politics: the long-term results are very far from those intended. It is a spy story with a difference, told through the careers of two strong women politicians, one a passionate idealist, the other a passionate pragmatist, each aiming to capture the soul of tomorrow's England.