Prince Bhadur Khan of the remote, but strategically located, Indian satrapy of Balrampur is an inbred and crazed killer with two fetishes: He has an obsession with military discipline and exotic military hardware and he is just as aroused by man flesh as by his revolving succession of wives. Regardless, the prince has become the linchpin of maintaining U.S. interests in the region. There is enough complex and volatile political and sexual intrigue going on in the court of Balrampur to make Machiavelli's head spin. The United States has become embroiled in the Balrampur court's machinations and is heavily committed to keeping the prince happy because Balrampur plays host to a secret U.S. photoreconnaissance jet operation keeping tabs on events stretching from the Near East to Southeast Asia. Into the center of the palace's den of scheming snakes is thrust young CIA Candy Store unit agent Craig Townsend. Craig possesses the combined needed attributes of being a jet pilot and just the sort of man who revs the Indian prince's engines . . . and this is precisely what young Townsend is assigned to do for the interests of U.S. intelligence. The palace plots thicken and become more dangerous and volatile by the hour as Craig Townsend is called upon to serve more plots and desires in the palace than he can count, let alone keep in balance. Then a new and unavoidably present threat of terrorism and treachery from within descends on Balrampur and the American contingent there.