Billy Boyle travels to Poltava during Operation Frantic, the American shuttle-bombing programme that uses airfields in the Soviet Union. The deaths of one American and one Soviet intelligence officer threaten a mission already weakened by distrust between the allies.
Required to work with a Soviet security agent, Billy enters an investigation shaped by surveillance, political fear and competing chains of command. Assistance from the Night Witches, the Soviet women flying night-bombing missions, gives him another view of the eastern war, but solving the murders may reveal secrets neither government wants its partner to know.
