Wormold, a vacuum cleaner salesman, was short of money. His daughter had reached an expensive age - so he accepted Hawthorne's offer of $300-plus a month and became Agent 59200/5, M. I.6's man in Havana. To keep the job, Wormold pretends to recruit sub-agents and sends fake stories. Then the stories start coming disturbingly true-Wormold is a vacuum cleaner salesman in a city of powercuts. His adolescent daughter spends his money with a skill that amazes him so when a mysterious Englishman offers him an extra income he's tempted. In return all he has to do is file a few reports. But when his fake reports start coming true things suddenly get more complicated and Havana becomes a threatening place.