A diplomat hounded by the KGB and the CIA fights to prevent a Canadian civil war

Pulling over on the California highway, 2 men argue with each other in French. They open their car's trunk and haul out 2 victims: a drunk man and a screaming woman. With 2 shotgun blasts, the couple is dead, and the killers drive back to Canada—the country their actions have just pushed to the brink of chaos.

Standing in the men's way is Dennis Showers, a rising star in the US State Department who has recently been posted in Ottawa. His mind is not on his career. Showers is instead obsessed with his long-lost childhood sweetheart, Felicity, who has fallen in with an environmental terrorist group bent on taking down the Canadian government. As Showers hunts for her, the CIA and KGB track his every move in a deadly dance that could push Canada into civil war—and drag the whole world toward nuclear Armageddon.