Alexandra Brookes, successful commodity broker at Wellington, is stale. She needs a new challenge. A chance encounter with a Russian metals trader could represent just the opportunity she is looking for. But when she visits the aluminium furnaces in Siberia, she is appalled by the hellish working conditions. The numbers on her computer screen are transformed into something more than a cold multi-million-dollar deal. People are dying in order to produce the metals she trades.
In the cut-throat world of futures trading, Alex decides to assist the beleaguered Russians. Together with her lover and fellow trader, Sol Berman, and the taciturn Maxim Volkov, she devises a brilliant strategy by which the Russians will benefit. But before long, Alex discovers that the Russians play a different game, in which ruthless violence is a trump card. As the deadline approaches, the violence escalates and Alex registers that any decision she makes could have life-threatening consequences . . . especially for her.