David Balfour, or Father Dimitrios, was a deeply conflicted and complex personality. He sought to find a God. Mount Athos for him was not a school of theology but a place of espionage. His fingerprints are on the suicide of Prime Minister Koritzis, as well as on the events of December.

He likely organized the September events in Smyrna in 1955, when Turkish 'basibozuks' humiliated Greek officers and their families. It was then that we also heard the name of Lieutenant Colonel Grigorios Spandidakis, whom we knew as a richly adorned peacock during the dictatorship.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]