Jake Forrester, is recruited by Harvey Baum, a Miami based business associate, to carry out an assignment for Cyrus Kroger, a reclusive billionaire, at his heavily guarded property in the Catskills. In a series of emails to his wife Sally, Jake describes his increasingly close friendship with the septuagenarian Kroger but Jake suddenly disappears and Baum says he is out of contact, visiting Kroger´s operations in Central Africa. Shortly after Jake´s disappearance Baum phones Sally to say Kroger has fallen ill and died and then, a month later, he phones again, this time to say Jake is back in Miami but in a clinic suffering from a nervous breakdown.Sally flies to Miami and brings Jake home. She notices there are no visas or stamps in his passport indicating a visit to Central Africa. Jake gradually returns to normal but his relationship with Sally does not regain its old warmth. Whatever happened in the month Jake disappeared brings him vast wealth but Sally is worried because she finds he is growing increasingly nervous and suspicious.Sally and Jake start getting used to being wealthy. She finds she is leaving her old life and friends behind. They move into a Park Lane penthouse and there Sally makes a discovery that brings her whole world crashing down. She starts investigating and what she discovers makes her afraid for her life.