Byron Jones, teacher and industrial chemist, has been recently widowed but having taken time-off to look after his dying wife, he's trying to get back into the workforce. However his attempts at restarting his careerer have him wandering down strange paths, mixing with strange people.
In Australia Byron encounters those who claim to be CIA but the links with that organisation are at best tenuous. A chicken farm turns out to be a cover for a depot of chemical and biological weapons. Mercenary solders smuggled in for parachute training are not what they seem.
Byron having come to know too much is kidnapped and flown out to the Central Asian country of Oilbekistan. Escaping he gets caught up with local issues, overlaid by international big power politics. Byron is befriended by Dr Margot Sorensen, an American anthropologist and charity worker. Byron's attempts at alerting the authorities to all that's going on, leads to him and Margot being arrested, accused of terrorism.
