As 007 (Timothy Dalton) parachutes into Gibraltar fellow agent 004 (Simon Crane) is assassinated. Next Bond is assigned to protect General Koskov (Jeroen Krabbé) as he defects from a concert in Czechoslovakia. Beautiful cellist and eventual Bond girl Kara Milovy (Maryam d'Abo) may be trying to kill Koskov so ladies-man Bond shoots the rifle from her hands. Koskov tells MI6 that General Pushkin (John Rhys-Davies) has revived SMERSH but is kidnapped from the MI6 safe house by assassin Necros (Andreas Wisniewski). Assigned to kill Pushkin Bond discovers that cellist Kara is Koskov’s girlfriend and the escape was a ruse. Koskov has ties to arms dealer and West Point drop-out "General" Brad Whitaker (Joe Don Baker) who wants to be rich rather than rule the world. Bond and Kira escape the KGB in Vienna by tobogganing down a mountainside in her cello case. They head off to Tangier to find Whitaker where Bond finds out Pushkin is really the good guy and Kira is tricked into helping Koskov capture Bond. Both are taken to prison in Afghanistan. The pair escape and link up with the Mujahideen who aid Bond in his quest to foil Whitaker's greedy scheme.