An epic tale about a land and a people Winston Churchill called "a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma."American cancer specialist Dr. Alex Cousins is on a covert mission to the USSR. He is tasked with prolonging the life of Soviet Politburo Chief, Viktor Moiseyevich Dimitrov, who is suffering from advanced stage leukemia. But the tenuous confidence between the unlikely colleagues is shattered one night as Alex accidentally discovers Dimitrov's diabolical plans for a nuclear strike on China. Alex soon finds himself dispatched, homeward bound, on a six-thousand-mile journey aboard the Trans-Siberian Express; long enough, Alex realizes, to silence him from alerting the U.S. of the imminent destruction.