Archie Barker is a charming former ‘high roller’ who dabbles in high-stake investments in the undersea cable industry. His focus is on the buying and selling of used cable, or ‘scrap’ as he calls it, to primarily third-world nations. It is a risky business, and he’s been burned down before.

But Barker is about to get a ‘big break’. Or so it seems. Barker and his partners are offered a substantial sum for their stock of cable. A down payment is delivered but the balance is slow to materialize. Something is fishy and it isn’t just the deck of the Seraphina. Barker is invited to a high-level intelligence meeting in Washington. With numerous international trips, including ones to Morocco and Guyana, Barker discovers a plot for mass destruction.

Can Barker and his new love interest, an American agent, stop the catastrophe?