"Steven Le Conte, a young American journalist of great charm and scant success, lives in Paris near Sophie Marx, retired Bureau Chief of the New York Times. Sophie is writing a series on Georges Michelet, an unscrupulous French politician with presidential ambitions. Sophie persuades Steven to befriend Michelet's daughter, Nicole, hoping he will be able to transform his contact into valuable information. Instead he falls desperately in love with her. When Steven learns that Nicole's father is behind a gruesome series of disasters involving U.S. aircraft, he awakens to an agonizing dilemma."--Cover page 4.