In order to make good with his former employers, a submarine captain takes a job with a shadowy backer to search the depths of the Black Sea for a submarine rumored to be loaded with gold.

After the terrorist attacks on 9/11, Jack Ryan, studying at the London School of Economics, becomes a U.S. Marine fighting in Afghanistan, where his spine is critically injured when his helicopter is shot down. During the recovery, he meets Cathy Muller, the medical student helping him learn to walk again, and Thomas Harper, an official with the C.I.A. who recruits him. Ten years later, Ryan is working on Wall Street covertly for the C.I.A., looking for suspect financial transactions that would...