Mrs. Pollifax is on hand in Morocco to back up an inept CIA agent, and it's a good thing. Their first informant is killed, and Mrs. Pollifax begins to get the idea that her colleague is not who he says he is. Still, she forges ahead, checking out suspicious informants, and coming to the conclusion that someone is an imposter and someone wants her dead....

The smoking remains of a car belonging to sheriff Ike Schwartz are found just outside Picketsville, Virginia. Since leaving the CIA, the sheriff has made many enemies at home and abroad. Is this a cop killing, or domestic terrorism? While the Picketsville sheriff's department mounts a manhunt for the responsible party, Ike's old CIA colleague, Charlie Garland, who has been monitoring Ike's life, joins the hunt.

Working with her retired CIA friend John Farrell, Mrs. Pollifax must smuggle a manuscript out of Jordan, a document that encodes the shocking truth of Saddam Hussein's reign. Hardly are the two airborne when the coils of Middle Eastern intrigue begin to unwind. Mrs. Pollifax's seatmate is not the affable Arab businessman he pretends to be. It is not imagination that persuades Mrs. P. that wherever they go, she and Farrell are followed. To elude their...