1917. Stephen Locke, whose deceased father was a diplomat, has recently been appointed British consul to Moscow, a job he considers rather mundane. A revolution in Russia which deposed the Czar has led to a provisional government. The allied forces need that provisional government to remain in the world war rather than sign a separate peace deal with the Germans, as such a peace deal would free up those Germans fighting on the eastern front to move to the western front. A second revolution occurs in Russia bringing swiftly into power a Bolshevik government led by Vladimir Lenin, they who are more apt to signing that peace agreement with the Germans as viewing the war as a battle between the Germans and the west. Most of the allied powers have left a skeleton staff at their Russian embassies in not recognizing the Bolsheviks in power, Stephen who is the sole high ranking representative for the British based in the capital of what is now called Petrograd. He receives news from the home office that he is to do whatever he can in an unofficial capacity (i.e. without British government assistance, protection or authorization) to ensure that that peace agreement between the Russian and German governments is not signed, this the type of exciting work for which he was hoping even if only in this unofficial capacity as a simple British citizen. Personal complications ensue when Stephen and a Russian revolutionary named Elena Moura fall in love with each other, each knowing who the other is and their positions. They have to reconcile their feelings for each other against their political ideals which may place them at odds with each other. That reconciliation has to prioritize which is more important between their love and their politics and what they are willing to do to advance their political beliefs which may harm the other directly, especially as Stephen decides to take some political gambles in his official unofficial job, these gambles, which if they do not pay off, may mean his life as long as he stays in Russia.—Huggo