Thursday, December 8, 1960 Nick and Carter are jetting across the Atlantic to the island of Capri for the funeral of the Dowager Duchess of Boston. On the way, they're dropping off Marnie and her husband, Alex, so the two can spend a relaxing few days in Paris. When they arrive in Europe, Nick and Carter receive a distressing message. Paul Vermaut, their good friend from the Congo, is sick with a mysterious disease that has the doctors baffled. He's been on the run from the Congolese civil war, traveling thousands of miles over land, and is now hospitalized in Salisbury, the capital of Southern Rhodesia. Right after the funeral, Nick and Carter fly south to get Paul and bring him back to the States and, hopefully, back to health. Once they land in Salisbury, they discover Paul is dying and his lover from the Congo, Freddie Nyemba, has likely been arrested by the police for being on the grounds of the hospital illegally in an area reserved for Europeans without a pass, something required for all Africans in the British colony. Nick and Carter have to come up with a plan to sneak Freddie out of Southern Rhodesia and into the U.S. without getting caught. If they fail, he'll be deported to a land he loves but thrust back into the middle of a civil war he wants no part of...