When Bond’s latest assignment goes gravely wrong and agents around the world are exposed, MI6 is attacked forcing M to relocate the agency. These events cause her authority and position to be challenged by Gareth Mallory, the new Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee. With MI6 now compromised from both inside and out, M is left with one ally she can trust: Bond. 007 takes to the shadows – aided only by field agent, Eve – following a trail to the mysterious Silva, whose lethal and hidden motives have yet to reveal themselves.

In a near future, the world order has changed. With its 10 millions of unemployed citizens, France has now become a poor country. Its people wavers between rebellion and resignation and find an outlet in the shape of TV broadcast ultra brutal fights in which the players are legally doped and unscrupulous.

After a year abroad Estelle returns home to collect her husband’s share of the loot from a major robbery.

Puck has been invited by her tutor at the university to celebrate midsummer at his secluded cottage on an island together with a group of friends, among them Einar Bure. Puck and Einar are having a secret relationship, and he is the reason she says yes to the invitation. Having been out on a romantic spree with Einar, Puck finds one of the female guests murdered. Einar contacts his friend Christer Wijk, but upon Christer’s arrival, the dead body has disappeared. The contact with the outside world is broken when the island’s only boat goes missing. They are trapped on the island – and someone among them is a killer…