The Allies are advancing on Berlin in the dying days of the Second World War, but the Russians are plotting much more than the end of the Third Reich. Operation Archangel's aim is for Soviet troops to blast their way straight to the English Channel.With fake Soviet tanks lined up near the German border in Czechoslovakia, two British spy pilots stumble across this elaborate charade. Wing Commander Robert Fleming and Rhodesian expatriate Piet Kruze become the front line in the effort to defuse the Russian scheme. But they must first penetrate the heart of the Nazi defences and steal the one weapon that can possibly destroy Archangel: the cream of the new generation of German jet fighter bombers.

As the destinies of three men with troubled pasts converge in a web of seemingly unconnected events, it becomes apparent that their futures are held in the hands of the terrorist leader, the Sword. But in the spiralling vortex of world "realpolitik" who are the victims and who is the aggressor?