Reed Lawson, 38, a brilliant professor of European history at Columbia University, lives quietly in the New York suburbs with his two teenage daughters. His whole life is suddenly turned upside down when one night there is a knock on the door and he discovers three terrorists in his house, and then wakes up in a Parisian basement, where he is being tortured. They are convinced that Reed is the most powerful spy the CIA has ever hired. He is convinced that they took the wrong one. Is this so? With a conspiracy behind him, opponents no less intelligent than himself, and a killer on his tail, a brutal game of cat and mouse leads Reed on a dangerous path that will help him understand who he is, and, by the looks of it, , will return him to Langley.