November, 2006. Detective Inspector Brent Hyatt and Detective Sergeant Jim Dawson, are summoned to University College Hospital in London to interview a man named Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy who claims to have been poisoned. Litvinenko's wife, Marina, tells the detectives that the doctors are sceptical of his story, though the Russian's deteriorating physical condition is clear for everyone to see. Over three agonising days, Hyatt and Dawson interview the dying Litvinenko, who provides a meticulous account of who he believes to have killed him, and also the man responsible for ordering his murder, none other than Vladimir Putin.

A team of detectives led by Timmons's "best man," Brian Tarpey, arrives in Moscow to interview the prime suspects behind Litvinenko's murder.