Agent 6 Summary

The novel starts out with discovering a hidden diary in a suspect's chimney. The suspect is Polina Peshkova. Leo Demidov, a professional detective with vigilant eyes, is responsible for analyzing the diary and deciding whether Polina should be taken into questioning or not. Grigori, Leo's student, is the one who discovered the diary's hidden place when he uncovered soot from the fingerprints on Polina's desk. Leo discovers that Grigori had impersonated a made up character called Isaac during his job to watch Polina and got closer to her, eventually having feelings towards her and trying to protect her from questioning. When Leo failed to find anything suspicious against Polina, he abruptly discovers a sketch of the statue of liberty that Grigori had erased. Grigori is now in trouble.

It is understood that Leo has some feelings for Lena, a woman he saw often near the neighborhood. He got the chance to talk to her when they rode the same train, but unfortunately, he was politely rejected. Although Leo is hesitant to process Polina's file, he eventually does it.

Leo has been assigned to one of the most important tasks in his career: to protect Jesse Austin during his visit to the Soviet. Austin is a Negro singer and one of the strongest advocates for Communism and the Soviet Union. America is trying to stop him, and that's why Austin's protection is vital. Austin arrives and every word and action he says and does is known to the officials.

Taking him to a tour of the town, Leo slipped with his tongue and lied about his relationship with Lena, which causes him trouble, as Austin decided to visit the school Lena is in. It is discovered later that Lena's real name is Raisa. Fortunately, Raisa is smart enough to lie along and convince Austin that she and Leo are together. Austin hosts a concert in an old warehouse and everyone is allowed to attend. Abruptly, Grigori enters the warehouse, drunk and in a shabby condition. When Leo asks him what's wrong, Grigori tells him that they killed Polina after questioning. Grigori doesn't realize that the main cause of this was that Leo put Polina's file in the high priority when he saw Grigori put it in the low priority files.

The novel is fast forwarded 15 years, where Leo and Raisa have gotten married and adopted two girls, Zoya and Elena. Leo decided to stop working for the secret police to marry Raisa. Raisa and her daughters are traveling to the US in a program done by the two countries where a student from the US is partnered with a student from the Soviet, and both will talk about their countries. As a teacher, Raisa was one of the people in charge, and her children were from the students who were included.

We are introduced to a new character, Osip Feinstein, a Spy in America for the Soviet. We discover that Elena is having a secret affair with Mikael Ivanov, one of the staff who came with them to America to make sure they do and say the right thing and to make sure they resembled the Soviet Union.

Again, we are introduced to another FBI agent, Jim Yates, who believes that he would have lived the perfect life if it wasn't for his wife. Diane, his wife, is a lazy woman who is always asleep and bad-tempered. Yates hates her and hates living with her, and to relieve some of his anger he started having an affair with a waitress he knows. Yates abhors a group of people who founded the CPUSA (Communist Party of America), and while they think he hates them for being Negros, he claims he does because they're communists.

Elena is sent as a last attempt to convince Austin and his wife to attend the meeting. Raisa is suspicious of Elena's actions and decides to indirectly consult Leo, who advises her to not let Elena go to the concert. Osip meets Yates with evidence that allegedly proves his loyalty to the US, unlike what is obvious to all, which is that he is from the CPUSA. The evidence is a photo of Austin and Elena holding hands at the end of their meeting. Unfortunately, it was Osip's worst decision: he got caught and was burned alive.

Austin goes to the concert as planned, and while he is saying his speech, someone shoots him dead. Elena is wounded, and Anna, Austin's wife, kills Raisa. Leo dramatically changes when he hears of Raisa's death, explaining to Elena that Mikael was a trap to let her in the plan. Leo vows to find her murderer and kill him.

Again, the novel is fast-forwarded eight years when a man is trying to cross the border illegally and was caught. The man apparently has something to do with Jesse Austin. The novel is then fast-forwarded seven years. That man is Leo, who tried to find his wife's murderer but failed. His life became miserable, full of opium and grief. He is now in Afghanistan while his two daughters are married. After the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan, Leo became one of the few advisors for the secret officers there, forced to be one as a punishment for trying to escape.

Leo teaches new agents, and one of his most outstanding students is a girl named Nara. Nara gets attacked at her house for working as a woman for the secret police. Fortunately, she escapes the assassination attempt and runs to Leo's house. In fact, it turns out she is the only survivor in a mass attempt of murdering all of Leo's students. Nara is asked to interrogate her parents because they were taken as suspects of the people responsible for the series of murders. As it turns out, Nara's father is one of the main planners of the attack, and he gave the attackers the exact location of his daughter.

After a Soviet attack on a village, Leo attacks his captain who tries to shoot a 7-year-old girl who was the only survivor of the village. Then, Leo is held hostage by the Afghans along with Nara and Zabi, the 7-year-old girl. Nara is to be executed, but Leo proposes a plan that could change the course of the war and save Nara's life. The plan is to go to Pakistan and convince America to help Afghanistan against the Soviets.

Leo is successful in seeking asylum with Nara and Zabi in the United States in exchange for valuable information about the Soviet's plans. Leo wanted to go to America for one reason: to know his wife's murderer, even after sixteen years of the incidence.

After much investigation, Leo finds out Jim Yates and understands exactly what happened. He also discovers that Anna Austin killed his wife by mistake, but it was Yates who left Raisa twenty minutes, calling for help, dying from loss of blood. Leo returns to Russia to see his daughters, and to tell Elena that her mother wanted to tell her one thing before she died: she was not angry and she loved her. As a traitor, Leo is taken to prison, and his punishment was not seeing his daughters, but Ivanov, now in a new identity, petitions for Leo to see them, and he finally does.