Among some of the finest art treasures, lent by the Hermitage Museum, Leningrad, for display at the Fine Arts Museum, Washington is the Catherine the Great icon, the oldest known icon and worth millions of dollars.

An expert gang of art thieves succeed in stealing the icon, but the buyer insists the icon should be delivered to him in Zurich, Switzerland. With every exit closed by order of the President of the United States, chances of smuggling the icon to Switzerland appear slim. The story of how the icon is stolen and how it reaches Switzerland is yet another of James Hadley Chase's to-be-read-at-a-sitting thrillers.