Content Warning: This section contains references to kidnapping, murder, and racism.

Tamara Levit is one of the protagonists of this novel. She is a CIA agent attached to the US embassy and stationed in Chad, a landlocked country in north-central Africa. Although there is a US embassy in Chad, their French counterparts in the European Union (EU) Mission and the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure, or DGSE, assist in much of the diplomatic and military work there. When the reader first meets Tamara, she is on a joint mission with a member of the DGSE, Tabdar “Tab” Sadoul, with whom she becomes romantically linked in the novel. She is a round and dynamic character, changing and growing throughout the story. The story shows the complexities of her personality and that she develops from the insecure young woman bullied by her boss Dexter into a competent and secure agent and woman by the end.

Tamara is a true believer in the ideals of the United States, and “[w]ith all her heart she believe[s] in freedom, democracy and justice” (30). She is also very impressed by the bravery of Abdul, who goes undercover tracing a shipment of cocaine terrorists are smuggling into Europe.