Edward Grainger has been summoned to West Berlin on a secret mission. He is told that he must discover the location of a missing research scientist and his team. The scientist just happens to be Edward's old friend George Tremayne, who had courted Eleanor Grainger for six months before she chose Edward. Edward and Eleanor had just attended a talk given by George on the subject of the Voynich manuscript. After the talk, George told them that he had been reactivated and was being sent to study something that has been found.