In die duister wereld van spioene geld die gewone reels nie. Niel Barnard onthul wat hy in die 1980's as hoof van die Nasionale Intelligensiediens (NI) gedoen het - soos hoogs geheime gesprekke wat hy met Nelson Mandela begin voer het, wat die eerste tree was na 'n demokratiese bewind. Die boek werp ook lig op die alledaagse lewe van spioene en die suksesse van NI in die 1980's, soos die gesprekskanaal met die Russiese KGB en die vastrek van Britse spioene.

In the murky world of espionage few rules apply. Everything is permitted in the name of state security - even talking to the country's Enemy No. 1. This is exactly what Niel Barnard, then head of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), did in the late 1980s, conducting top-secret talks with Nelson Mandela in prison - the precursor to Mandela's release and the democratic elections. The book also sheds light on the daily lives of spies during NIS's heyday in the 1980s and contains several revelations about the organisation's accomplishments.