Part I: Chapters 1 - 8 Summary

The Charm School by Nelson DeMille is a novel of international espionage set in Russia during the time of the Cold War. On the way to Moscow, Gregory Fisher has a shocking encounter with an mysterious man claiming to be an American POW. After calling the embassy with his incredible story, Fisher disappears. Colonel Sam Hollis and Lisa Rhodes are left trying to piece together the unbelievable details of a Russian plan to infiltrate (and eventually dismantle) American society.

In Chapter 1, Gregory Fisher leaves Smolensk and heads for the Moscow-Minsk highway in his Pontiac Trans Am. The young Intourist woman cautions him to be careful. Foreigners are not allowed on the roads after dark. Fisher stops at Borodino to visit the site of the 1812 battle where Napoleon fought Kutuzov and where Hitler challenged the Russian army in...