When Agent 007 goes to Harlem, it's not just for the jazz. Harlem is the kingdom of Mr. Big, voodoo baron, black master of crime, and senior partner in SMERSH's grim company of death. As gold coins from a Jamaican pirate hoard start turning up in pawnshops in Harlem, M suspects the treasure is being used to finance SMERSH activity in America. Agent 007 is sent to New York to uncover Mr. Big's criminal operation.

Those Mr. Big cannot possess he crushes; those who cross him will meet painful ends, like his beautiful prisoner, Solitaire, and her lover, James Bond. Both are marked as victims in a trail of terror, treachery, and torture that leads from New York's black underworld to the shark-infested island in the sun that Mr. Big calls his own.

Bond realizes Big is one of the most dangerous men that he has ever faced, and no one, not even the mysterious Solitaire, can be sure how their battle of wills is going to end.