In nineteenth-century England, jilted by London's most eligible bachelor, Julia convinces her friend to play the role of his ideal match. Soon, Mr. Malcolm wonders whether he's found the perfect woman or the perfect hoax.

An al-Qaida e-mail promising a New Year's Day attack on America leads to the capture of the group's leader. But even under fierce interrogation, the terrorist clings to his jihadist beliefs and won't divulge any information. Desperate, the Army resorts to a contingency paper that proposes to break a subject's resistance by inducing a religious conversion. One hitch: the attempt must be masked as an offer of clemency, and requires a completely innocent...