Appointed to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate, Richard Thompson is thrust back into public life. With the nation in mourning over the death of the Vice President all law enforcement is searching for his alleged killer, a young mid-westerner who was working at the White House as an advance man at the time of the assassination. As the young man tries to hide in D.C.'s trendy DuPont Circle neighborhood, the key to proving the man's innocence may—like him—be hiding in plain sight. And its discovery could spark a new Cold War.