An unsuspecting United Nations staffer, Emlen Ferguson, is deceived by his boss into thinking that he is being sent on a routine mission to a country in Africa, but he belatedly discovers that in reality it is to ferret out the details of a brewing rebellion against a corrupt dictator ruling the country. He gets romantically involved with a Dutch woman in the local U.N. office, is captured by the rebels, endures death threats and double-crossings, engages in philosophical and religious debates with a shady Russian expatriate, and finds himself transformed into an entirely different person than before.
