Chapter 1 Summary

Paul Christopher boards a plane in Bangkok, Thailand, thinking about how his ex-wife Cathy and girlfriend Molly obsess about poetry he can no longer write, and how his South Vietnamese agent, Luong, faces death. Paul has just paid off Luong as ordered by section chief Wolkowicz for photographs of North Vietnamese intelligence chief Do Minh Kha and a mystery woman. The powerful Ngo family wants Luong dead.

In Paris, a city Paul has long known but no longer loves, he types a report to his case officer, Tom Webster, and then sleeps for 12 hours with it under his pillow. Tom reads the "hot" report before dinner guests arrive. Dennis Foley, the President's right-hand man, takes a dislike to Paul's political neutrality and insists that JFK will live up to his commitments. Brains and style are back in government. Foley's dinner date, Peggy McKinney...