The First Day, Friday, 3 December Summary

Set during the tense times of the Cold War, the daring defection of a top level Soviet submarine captain puts the whole world in danger. Jack Ryan, a CIA specialist, is called in to analyze the situation and to help the US government avoid a military conflict that would disturb the balance of peace between the US and the USSR. An intense exploration of the problematic peace between the two world powers, the novel keeps the reader in suspense as people at all levels, both military and civilian, race to avert a global nuclear crisis.

Captain Ramius commands the nuclear submarine called the Red October. Ramius has a complicated relationship with Soviet life. His father was a Soviet hero during World War II, but Ramius was raised by his grandmother in Lithuania, a Soviet republic with a history of...