Marion is a woman who has learned to shield herself from her emotions. She rents an apartment to work undisturbed on her new book, but by some acoustic anomaly she can hear all that is said in the next apartment in which a psychiatrist holds his office. When she hears a young woman tell that she finds it harder and harder to bear her life, Marion starts to reflect on her own life. After a series of events she comes to understand how her unemotional attitude towards the people around her affected them and herself.
When an unauthorized letter is sent to Moscow alleging the U.S. government's willingness to help Russia attack China, former naval officer Charles Rone and his team are sent to retrieve it. They go undercover, successfully reaching out to Erika Kosnov, the wife of a former agent, now married to the head of Russia's secret police. Their plans are interrupted, however, when their Moscow hideout is raided by a cunning politician.
