Algeria, 1973. The Yom Kippur war has just ended with the defeat of the Arab countries. OPEC, the oil cartel, has called for an embargo of deliveries to those countries who sided with Israel. Holland, with abundant oil stocks, has chosen to break the boycott by supplying its neighbors. Peter Van Heick, a Dutchman, manages a group of misfit consultants on a critical project for the Algerian Ministry of Industry and Energy, while the Ministry and Sonatrach, the country's mamoth oil company, are in a power struggle. Meanwhile the country, which is run by the FLN, the only authorized political party, must face its first terrorist attacks by Islamic Fundamentalists. Will Peter be caught in the turmoil ? Are all the people around him what they seem to be ?