78-year old Ernie Johnson, experienced yachtsman, dyed-in-the-wool leftie and pacifist, sails toward Ireland aboard The Worker's Paradise. When Customs Inspectors board the boat, they find a huge cache of arms and whisk Ernie away to face the music. His nephew Fred Hope, 'conservation's Che Guevara' with his own reputation as a wild man, visits the old man in prison, only to find that he appears to have forgotten who he is. What follows is a compulsive tale of international treachery, Russian Mafiosi, stolen art treasures and political ghosts from the past - set against the freezing backdrop of the Norwegian Sea in winter.