The Plot Author:Irving Wallace In The Plot, a group of characters having apparently little personally to do with each other, converge on Paris to right old wrongs and end up saving the world from a massive conspiracy. — Our heroes include Matt, a once famous White House aide now exiled from America because of his role in "allowing" an American nuclear-weapon... more »s expert to defect to Red China; Emmet, a former President, modeled after Eisenhower, already living in obscurity but now threatened with a darker place in history for his role in that same nuclear scandal; Jay, a former internationally recognized print journalist now going to fat writing cookbooks (also in obscurity) in Vienna; Hazel, Jay's estranged lover and one-time pupil, who now surpasses him, but can't get past him; and Medora Hart, a young British girl living in exile in France for her role in a Profumo-like sex-scandal involving high-ranking British Politicians.
Sharing nothing besides being losers, each of our heroes suddenly discovers that the key to their salvation may be waiting for them in Paris where America, China and Russia have gathered to hold disarmament talks. For Matt, it means the chance to reunite with a Soviet diplomat who can prove Matt was not to blame for allowing the Chinese a toe-hold in the nuclear club; For Emmett, it means the chance to talk an embittered and dying German munitions magnate out of publishing memoirs that will hold the ex-president accountable for allowing the Chinese a nuclear arsenal; For Jay, it means reuniting with Hazel and uncovering proof she hinted at years earlier of Russian involvement in the Kennedy assassination, proof that will bring Jay back the journalistic stardom now only a memory; For Hazel, it means the chance to scoop her competitors and escape Jay's shadow; And for Medora, it means that Paris will be full of British diplomats, including the one who tricked her into leaving England and then yanked her citizenship.« less