An arms dealer Martin Blackshaw makes a deal to supply Saddam with nuclear material, discovering too late that failure means death. As a safeguard he visits a Scottish clinic to arrange a new face and identity. Racing to the clinic in a snowstorm with an Iraqi hit squad hard on his heels his car hits another driven by a salesman, Alex Sinclair. Believing Sinclair fatally injured with massive facial injuries Blackshaw switches personal items with Sinclair, confident this will fool the pursuers before disappearing. Sinclair wakes up in the clinic weeks later with the new face and identity chosen by Blackshaw. Traumatised by this event he is then mortified to discovery that Blackshaw has taken control of his family. Meanwhile Israeli intelligence has got wind of Saddam's plot and sends a Mossad assassination team to the clinic where they mistakenly believe Blackshaw has obtained a new identity. Unintentionally a nurse that Sinclair has become close to and who helped him to escape from the clinic is killed. With nothing to lose Sinclair must now hunt down the man who has ruined his life and save his family before the Iraqi's and Israelis murder squads move in, an amateur against a professional.....

On a mountain top above the old industrial town of Blaenavon

Sergeant Alex Spencer journeys to his home village of Catspey for the funeral of his mother. He is astounded to discover that three of his childhood friends have all died apparently accidentally within days of each other. At the graveside he meets another childhood friend and ex-fiance who believes that all four deaths are linked and she is next in line to be killed. A disbelieving Alex has only few days compassionate leave to discover if such a deadly threat truly exists and, if so, how to protect the only woman he has ever loved.