In the formidable Colonel Garrison's updated version of the old Redskins program, operatives actually have and maintain an authentic identity very different from that of spy. As Colonel Garrison likes to say, "It is easier to make an agent out of a real person than a real person out of an agent." Dan O'Donovan, former Marine, partner and heir to a local family department store chain, is one such operative.

This mission is initiated when an elusive, unidentified terrorist organizer kills yet another agent sent to kill him and Colonel Garrison at last receives a photo, although no name, that might actually be authentic, as well as a home base in Spain and the information of a tie to the ETA, a Basque group whom some experts call the best-trained terrorists in the world, which is probably all too authentic. On this mission in spite of Dan's protests, the Colonel has attached Dan’s department store business partner, Pres Hooper, who is clueless as to Dan's real "business" in Spain. But Pres is eager to go for he has been told that Spain is the land of romance, his kind of place. The mission goes very wrong within the first few hours and Pres is not exactly helping. Nor are either Dan or Pres pleased to see Pres’ sister, tweedy, tally-ho Mary Sue, arrive in Madrid.