A seasoned and cynical book publisher Barley Blair (Sean Connery) is at a book convention when he is secretly slipped a manuscript from Soviet Russia in order to smuggle it to the West. It contains secrets about Soviet weapons and it important to the Soviet Union as well as Western governments. Instead of turning it over to the government, Barley wants to find out more of what this is all about. He travels to Russian and discovers that it was Katya Orlova (Michelle Pfeiffer) who got the manuscript to him on behalf of scientist Dante (Klaus Maria Brandauer). Barley discovers that he is being spied upon not only by the Russians but by American agents who want to learn what he is doing in Russia. Barley's only interest in the ordeal is his growing love for Katya.