Thane and Moss regard it as little more than an unpleasant routine when asked to identify the body of a salmon poacher who apparently blew himself up while illegally dynamiting a river pool in the Scottish Highlands. But then a couple of surprises present themselves to the two detectives: firstly that the dead man had a companion with him who has now disappeared, and secondly, that the dead man had a connection with an assassination attempt on a visiting politician from Moscow...

And now time is running out. Only "The Man in the Bottle" knows the truth, but while the hours are ticking past, Thane and Moss have to crack the code and guess what these mysterious words mean - and what disaster they can prevent.