"A young Ukrainian orphan with a strange psychic power is enrolled in a KGB training school in the wake of WW II. Two decades later, given the code name Billy Budd, he is sent to the U.S. as a spy. One of his co-workers on a construction crew is a Native American holy man who introduces him to the spiritual life forbidden during his youth. Much like his namesake, Budd is involuntarily confined to a vessel, in this case New York City, full of severe social and philosophical contradictions, and his spontaneity, honesty and bravery eventually overwhelm his loyalty to the Soviet state"--Amazon.com.