Joe Turner is a bookish Central Intelligence Agency analyst, code named "Condor". He works at the American Literary Historical Society in New York City, which is actually a clandestine CIA office. The seven staff members read books, newspapers, and magazines from around the world, looking for hidden meanings and other useful information. Turner files a report to George Bush Center for Intelligence on a thriller novel with some strange plot elements, noting the unusual assortment of languages it has been translated into.