The fate of the world hangs in the balance of a newly reunified Czechoslovakia in this political thriller by the author of Escape to Perdition.

With the anniversary of the Prague Spring approaching, panic overshadows the celebration as international terrorism and violent extremists threaten to destroy the country. Captain Lincoln Stone, a disgraced British officer, humiliatingly scapegoated by his government, finds himself in the thick of the action. Plucked from his purgatory, Stone is offered exoneration in return for his aid of the Czechoslovak Prime Minister.

Stone, resentful of his treatment and determined to prove himself, is driven by deeper motives than those of his superiors. But as the country descends into chaos, he must find a way to survive at the epicentre of a deadly storm. Cut off from the international community, Czechoslovakia's fate, and that of the world, hangs on Stone and the outcome to the Prague Ultimatum . . .