Spider Shepherd's MI5 controller, Charlie Button, has gone rogue, using government resources to get revenge on the men who killed her husband. Spider is told to betray her. Worse, he's asked to cooperate with his nemesis at MI6, Jeremy Willoughby-Brown, in taking Charlie down. And he will have to cross the assassin, Lex Harper, currently on the trail of two Irish terrorists, who may be able to lead him to his ex-boss. Meanwhile, another high profile mission is about to engulf Spider. President Vladimir Putin is about to visit the UK and a father who lost his daughter on the downed Malaysian plane over the Ukraine holds Putin directly responsible for her death and wants revenge. Along with everything else, it's down to Spider to stop the assassination of a head of state on British soil.