1904: Powerscourt comes out of retirement for one last time, heading for Russia in one of the strangest cases of his career. A British diplomat has been discovered, his throat cut, on one of the bridges spanning the Nevskii Prospekt in St Petersburg. It transpires the diplomat knew a secret — and that secret killed him. As Powerscourt strides through the halls of the Winter Palace and falls foul of the Okhrana — the Russian secret police — he has to attend other matters. Russia is on the verge of revolution and he must escape — before time runs out on him.