IN THE GRIP OF THE IRON CURTAIN takes place in ravaged Berlin -- a decade after the conclusion of World War II. The island city of three million citizens is isolated deep into Communist-dominated occupied territory. More than thirty spy organizations from countries on both sides of the Iron Curtain operate in the former capitol city, while the majority of Berliners still live and work in the ruins of bombed and artillery-shelled buildings. Steve McKinnon, trained by the U. S. Army Counterintelligence Corp. for a covert assignment, arrives in the former German capitol at the height of the Cold War, to serve as an undercover CIC agent, while working in the four-man Berlin Command Public Information Office. Upon arriving in Germany, he is instructed to be the sole contact with another CIC undercover agent, recently planted in Soviet-controlled East Berlin. McKinnon becomes a central figure in a dangerous, deceptive action.