Nick is an ex-Army translator whose facility for language allowed him to escape a difficult childhood in rural Connecticut. His mother is a former addict, now dying and requires expensive care. Desperate for money though ambivalent about finance, Nick is employed as a researcher at a Boston hedge fund. The head of the fund, the Boss, is a financial genius who believes US financial collapse is imminent, in part due to past inequities, including slavery. Looking for a catalyst, the Boss focuses on the recent assassination of a Russian central bank official and sends Nick to investigate. Nick uncovers a plot tied to the Russian FSB, the Chinese Ministry of State Security and the US Treasury but not the one his boss imagines. To solve the case, Nick needs to unravel intricate evidence and evade secret police from three different countries and liberate his love who gets ensnared in his mission.