Latvia:  It is 1918.  Germany's defeat is at hand.  In the East, however, a new war has broken out:  the Bolsheviks in the infant Soviet state are fighting for their survival, but at the same time, expanding into those areas they lost to Germany during the First World War.  In the Baltic States, even before the War has ended, German units are forming into Freikorps, mercenaries fighting for German interests ... and their own gain.  In Latvia, the new government, quasi-allied and quasi-occupied by the Germans, has no choice but to rely on these units to defend its newly declared independence.  Amidst local hostility and conflicting orders, the Freikorps battle Red units intent on making Latvia a red province.  Add into this a refugee from St. Petersburg who takes the fur coat off a Cheka spy killed during a battle, unaware that plans to undermine the Germans are in the pockets; traitors within the German and Latvian ranks who are waiting for the arrival of the real courier with those plans and who think the refugee is she; and some confused politics, and you have an action thriller which fairly accurately portrays the activity of these private armies in the East.