Maggie Bird is a lot of things. A chicken farmer. A courteous neighbor. And a seemingly average 60-year-old woman living a quiet life in bucolic Purity, Maine. She attends a weekly book club where she drinks martinis (stirred, not shaken) with her other retired friends. She's a darned good rifle shot. And she never talks about her past.

When a mysterious woman turns up dead in Maggie's driveway, she knows it's a calling card from old times. It's been fifteen years since she ran assets for the CIA and managed Operation Cyrano, which blew apart her life and cost her the man she loved.

Maggie and her "book club" swiftly revert to espionage mode. These old dogs hunt as only Langley alumni can, burning a trail from London to Bangkok to Milan to stay one step ahead of those who want former agent Bird dead. Maggie knows that some parts of the past refuse to stay buried. And that sometimes an old spy has to give up her ghosts.