At Munich's Oktoberfest, Miles Kendig, a veteran CIA field agent, and his team foil a microfilm transfer, setting off a chain of consequences that pull Kendig back toward a dangerous game of defiance. When he returns to Washington, his boss, Myerson, reassigns him to a desk job because Kendig did not arrest Yaskov, the head of the KGB in Europe. Kendig argues that understanding Yaskov’s thinking would take time and resources to identify a solid replacement, but his stance is disregarded, and Kendig’s protégé, Joe Cutter, is handed Kendig’s former role instead. The new arrangement feels like a betrayal to Kendig, and he refuses to accept it quietly.
Kendig refuses to go quietly into retirement. He shreds his personnel file and heads to Salzburg to visit his former lover, Isobel von Schönenberg, whom he has not seen in years. Yaskov, anticipating Kendig’s move, tracks him down and invites Kendig to defect to the KGB; Kendig refuses, and Yaskov taunts him by asking if he’ll retire and write memoirs instead. In that moment, Kendig makes a bold decision: he will publish a memoir exposing the CIA’s dirty tricks and rampant incompetence under Myerson. Isobel is horrified, warning that Myerson will send agents to kill Kendig, yet she aids him by mailing copies of Kendig’s first chapter to spy chiefs across the globe. Meanwhile, Myerson assigns Cutter to stop Kendig, while Yaskov pursues his old adversary to protect his own agency.
Kendig presses on, baiting his pursuers with explosive chapters and occasional updates on his whereabouts. He leaves Europe and returns to the United States, where he nonchalantly rents Myerson’s unused Georgia family home to continue writing. After leaking his address, Kendig draws the FBI’s attention and even sees his own home subjected to a bombardment of bullets and tear gas, much to Myerson’s dismay. He then charters a seaplane to Bermuda and later travels to London to meet his publisher and present the final chapter. As the chase intensifies, Yaskov informs Cutter that one of his agents has spotted Kendig in London, but Kendig remains steps ahead, buying a vintage Stampe biplane and hiring an engineer to modify it for a daring mission.
Myerson confronts Kendig’s publisher, who refuses to be intimidated and reveals Kendig’s hotel room. When the final chapters are left at the hotel, Kendig ambushes Cutter in his room, ties him up, and warns that he will attempt a dramatic escape by air. Isobel slips away from her CIA handlers and crosses the Channel by hovercraft to rendezvous with Kendig at dawn. As authorities converge on the airfield, Kendig experiences a tire failure and is briefly detained by local police, but he escapes by disabling a power outlet and stealing a police car.
The airfield becomes a chaotic stage as Kendig’s biplane takes off while Myerson’s helicopter closes in. For a tense while, Kendig’s plane dodges gunfire, but it appears to be struck. In a stunning twist, the plane’s supposed destruction is revealed to be a ruse: Kendig has controlled it remotely from the ground, and the explosion is part of the ruse to mislead the pursuers. He then stages a getaway by burning the remote control device in a barrel of spent oil and slipping away with [Isobel von Schönenberg], planning a quieter life in the south of France for a few weeks.
Months pass, and Kendig’s explosive memoir, Hopscotch, becomes an international bestseller. Disguised as a Sikh, with a British accent, he chats with a bookstore clerk and purchases a copy of his own book, much to Isobel’s exasperation at his antics and his ever-changing disguises. The story ends with Kendig and Isobel ready to enjoy a temporary respite from the chase, content with the idea that his controversial account will continue to provoke debate and intrigue long after the headlines fade.
