After being blacklisted for having communist sympathies as a student
twenty years before, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Tom Wrought
escapes America's Cold War climate to teach at Oxford. There, he falls
in love with Liz Spencer, a beautiful married woman. When Liz's husband
is pushed in front of a train in the London Underground, Tom is
immediately arrested for the murder. Scotland Yard is convinced it has
its man, as he had means, motive, and opportunity.
Certain of his innocence, Liz hires a young solicitor, Alice
Silverstone, to defend Tom. But they discover that Tom's former secret
work as an American spy made him a number of powerful enemies. Russian
intelligence, British counterespionage, and even the FBI all may have
reason to frame him. If Liz and Alice can find out who is behind the
murder, they stand a chance of freeing Tom, but doing so puts all their
lives at risk.