When an army of freedom fighters takes the entire Beaumont hostage, Chambrun contemplates a commando attack
Pierre Chambrun, the elegant manager of the Beaumont Hotel, gets the call just after breakfast: The fifteenth floor has been seized. Armed with guns, grenades, and plastic explosives, a gang of guerrillas has taken the daughters of the British ambassador hostage, and they are ready to kill to make themselves heard. For these men are combatants, veterans of the war in Vietnam who have come to demand justice for South Vietnamese political prisoners, as well as the release of American soldiers accused of massacring civilians and court martials for the generals who started the war in the first place. Their demands are impossible, but their firepower cannot be ignored.

As Chambrun scrambles to rescue his hotel, he does everything he can to stall the madmen, including sending them all the room service they can eat. But in just a few days, trigger fingers will start to itch, and the world-famous Beaumont Hotel may be blown sky high.