When Stewart Colley left the US Air Force, he submitted an application to become an espionage agent with the CIA. Nothing came of it. So, he accepted a job as a research/writer/analyst with the World News Organization in New York City. Seventeen years later, he is summoned to Washington, D.C., where he meets with E.F. Wright, a mysterious man who claims to be an administrator in the CIA. Wright tells Colley about a possible terrorist threat to the United States that may be brewing on a remote island in the Caribbean, and he recruits Colley to fly down to the island and investigate. Colley accepts the assignment even though he has no training in espionage work and vague instructions as to how to proceed with the investigation. His self-doubts mount as he explores the island looking for clues to a terrorist plot. He soon realizes that the threat is real and he is up against an unseen enemy who is ready to kill anyone who interferes with the operation. Moreover, Colley begins to suspect that his assignment was not as straightforward as it first appeared, and that Wright had an ulterior motive in recruiting him and sending him to the Caribbean.