French North Africa 1941 - President Roosevelt dispatches American diplomats to Algiers under direction of his personal representative Robert Murphy on a secret mission to prepare North Africa as a future base for American action against Nazi Germany. This is the true story underlying this tale of historical fiction. People move history. A lonely wife works as a secretary for an important French general while her husband serves as a Vichy diplomat in Nazi Germany. A young American diplomat has a secret mission. A French counterespionage agent and his alluring lady friend have a score to settle. A slinky German foreign correspondent charms her way into the top social circles of Algiers. A Nazi diplomat has perverse tastes while his sadistic Gestapo bodyguard keeps blackmailers at bay.

Refugees and adventurers, Vichy officers, German armistice officials, and American diplomats jockey for position as Sunday dinner at the posh Hotel Aletti approaches -- on December 7, 1941.