The luxurious ocean liner Buckingham is making its maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean when a bomb planted by Irish terrorists explodes. How many of the passengers will lose their lives?

Harry Clifton, now president of the International Writers' Association, launches a campaign to free Russian author Anatoly Babakov from a Siberian prison. Babakov's crime? Writing a book that reveals the true face of Stalin. Harry's wife, Emma Clifton, as president of the shipping company, faces the repercussions of the IRA's terrorist attack on the Buckingham. She crosses swords with Lady Virginia Fenwick, who is determined to destroy her.

Sir Giles Barrington is now a Crown minister with aspirations for even higher office, until an official trip to Berlin turns everything upside down. In London, Harry and Emma's son, Sebastian Clifton, is building his career at Farthings Bank, but the ruthless Adrian Sloane has other plans for him.

In the fifth installment of "The Clifton Chronicles," suspense and tension alternate relentlessly with emotion, through the continuous twists and turns that have become Jeffrey Archer's trademark, elevating him to one of the most popular authors in the world.