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Kemp Tolley guides readers through the lively world of a young naval attache in Moscow from 1942 to 1944. His absorbing tale describes the adventures of a thirty-day journey on a trans-Siberian train, the success of a long-sought-after inspection of a Soviet warship viewed through the haze of innumerable Vodka toasts, and the unease of state banquets with Stalin and Churchill. It also provides dramatic evidence of the contrasts of Soviet life, with descriptions of elegant nights at the ballet and memories of starving stevedores eating scraps of raw meat thrown out by American ships.