A very dangerous man. That's Paul Kavanagh, an ex-Green Beret with nothing but time on his hands—until he gets an offer to steal a shipment of tactical nuclear weapons from the U.S. government—and finds himself a partner, George Dattner, who has the cold eyes of a trained killer. Each of these men alone is dangerous. But anyone who tries to stop them together is guaranteed not to come out of it alive!

“If you’re not part of the solution, you must be part of the problem.” You heard that a lot in the early 1970s, when the country seemed to be teetering on the brink of revolutionary upheaval. Miles Dorn, living quietly in retirement in the U.S., had come a long way from his roots in Central Europe, leaving his past as an assassin and agent provocateur behind him. But as soon as he walks into his house and smells the smoke from a Turkish cigarette, he knows nobody can walk away from the past. It’s always there, and it can reach out at any moment and get hold of you. He’s recruited for a series of assassinations designed to render his adopted country vulnerable to a political coup. Instead of the elaborate web that’s the staple of conspiracy theorists, he’s one man, working alone. He’s also a man falling in love, and with a woman a generation too young for him. “We’re the same age, Miles,” she insists. “I’ve known you for exactly as long as you’ve known me.” Of course he likes the sound of that, but he knows better than to believe it. Just as he knows better than to believe that their love affair—or anything else in his life—has a real chance of working out. But what can he do? Is Dorn part of the solution—or a principal part of the problem?

He is Jimmie John Hall, "free and white and 22". Her name is Betty Dienhardt, plain, friendless, and oppressed by a bleak home life. In each other, they find a chance for love and fulfillment. But they are doomed. For Jimmie John has already embarked on a killing spree on the backroads of the Southwest that will leave 14 innocent people dead.