Joyce's second novel is about real-life spy, Freda Linton. Freda was an agent for Russian intelligence run out of the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa during World War II. The ring of spies, handled by the dashing and quixotic darling of the diplomatic community Nikolai Zabotin, was determined to steal the plans for the atomic bomb and send them to Stalin. Freda faces an impossible choice: to help Stalin make a nuclear bomb or to flee from her Russian handlers. In this fast paced Cold War spy thriller, Joyce re-creates the intrigue and cutthroat politics of the war era, one which is increasingly coming to resemble our own times as proof of Russian interference in American democracy emerges.