Summoned to London by a mysterious telegram, Paul Dukes finds himself recruited into the ranks of the British Secret Intelligence Service. The murder of Captain Cromie in the Petrograd embassy has flung the British spy networks in Russia into disarray, and the onslaught of the Red Terror threatens to stamp them out for good. With no prior espionage experience, Dukes is tasked with rebuilding the broken networks under the nose of the Bolshevik regime, all while keeping two steps ahead of the agents of the secret police.

Published in 1922, this memoir offers a view into the early days of the Secret Intelligence Service, now commonly known as MI6. Despite their reticence around their covert activities, MI6 allowed publication of early accounts of this book to drum up public support for the British intervention in northern Russia. Being a civilian, Dukes was ineligible for the Victoria Cross after his service, so instead he was knighted by King George V.