The events of the novel revolve around the Egyptian and Israeli intelligence agencies and their skirmishes during the period between the Naksa (1967 War) and the October War (1973). One of the key spies is injured, which leads to the inception of “The Specialists,” a team led by a commander with highly skilled individuals in various fields. The commander, a brigadier general, is obsessed with chess, its secrets, and its most crucial moves, and he uses these strategies to plan his team’s secret operations.

Each member of the team specializes in a specific field such as law, espionage, and disguise, and during their espionage missions, each specialist is referred to by a code number. This part of the story includes three specialists and a special operations agent, who operate under different names and nationalities in Israel, identified by numbers.

The plot centers on attempts to free the specialist Walid from the Mossad’s grip through the efforts of other specialists. The operation succeeds, and Walid escapes and finds refuge with a group of Palestinians. However, the brigadier general is preoccupied with figuring out how to transfer both him and Raafat from Israel.