House of Cards

Urquhart’s wife, Elizabeth, wants to make provisions for their future and introduces him to Nures, a Turkish Cypriot businessman who reveals the existence of an oil seam in the disputed sea boundary line between the two countries. Nures suggests that Urquhart might be able to influence the British judge who will be chairing the international arbitration panel in return for a handsome consultancy fee, which could be used to set up an Urquhart Trust as their own private pension plan. Tom Makepeace, the Foreign Secretary, is angry with Urquhart for taking all the credit for the Cyprus peace plan. Also keen on winning power is the ultra right wing Home Secretary John Rayner. Urquhart is involved in an unexpected motorway crash and taken to hospital. While recovering from a head wound, the past he thought dead and buried in Cyprus emerges to haunt him.