Jack Latourneau, an OSS agent, works with Maquis leader Philippe Boudrey behind enemy lines in France and in Indochina during WWII, leaving his comfortable upper class existence for a world of espionage and assassination that changes his life forever. After the war, longing to lead a normal life again, he enrolls in graduate work at Georgetown University. He falls in love with Christin, which leads to a confrontation with her former boyfriend, Walt. Walt attacks him and Jack leaves him unconscious on the floor. Terrified, Christin accuses him of trying to kill Walt and their relationship ends. Jack is recruited by Philippe Boudrey for the Deuxime Bureau, the French Intelligence Service, to establish an intelligence network in Indochina, where the French are fighting a guerrilla war. In Hanoi, he has a relationship with a beautiful Algerian dancer, Faud. When the French are defeated at Dien Bien Phu, Jack returns to Georgetown. He meets Christin again, who is now married to Walt, and they become embroiled in a hopeless love affair. Providentially, Philippe Boudrey recruits him again for special operations against Muslim terrorists in Algeria, gathering intelligence and eradicating their infrastructure, which ultimately leads to the terrorist's destruction in Algiers and in the countryside. Jack miraculously finds Faud again. When deGaulle turns Algeria over to the Muslims, there is Revolution in France. Jack joins the OAS, the Secret Army, and fights for a French Algeria. He is part of an abortive attempt to assassinate deGaulle and becomes a hunted man in Metropolitan France. On the verge of capture, he is approached by a CIA agent who was sent to get him out of France. With the French police all around them, they desperately search for a way to escape...