Kremlin-by-the-Sea is the first person account of Jake Gavronski, a third-generation Russian-American who sells real estate in the upscale community of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. He has recently lost his job as a professor of English at a small college in nearby St. Augustine due to a dalliance with one of his female students. Jake now works for his ex-wife, Elena McCrory, who has her own real estate company in Ponte Vedra. She takes him on as he cannot find employment elsewhere. A call comes into Elena's office from a mysterious Russian buyer who wants to see an oceanfront mansion. Wary of the caller, she asks Jake to show the property. Jake meets the Russian buyer at the house, a man who introduces himself as Maximilianov Malenkovsky. 'Max, ' as he wants to be called, takes a brief tour of the house and says that he wants to buy it-for cash. After some cursory vetting of Mr. Malenkovsky, Elena agrees to present the offer. The owner, who is presently in hiding under the Federal Witness Protection Program, accepts and the deal is done. Max, however, is not done. After inviting Jake to celebrate at the property with a drink, he makes a proposal: that Jake accompany him to Russia and assist him in the purchase of properties there. Jake objects that he has no license to practice in Russia, nor does he know the market.. Max waves these objections aside, saying that he can obtain a license for him. After some discussion with Elena, Jake decides to accept Max's proposal and soon they are off to Moscow. Max's real objective is to obtain certain oil fields in the Caspian Sea, off the coast of Azerbaijan. Since he is a rival of Vladimir Putin, he feels he must conceal his intentions and thus use Jake as a straw man. While in Moscow, Jake becomes involved with a Russian opera singer who also happens to be a lawyer-and much else. This is Anna Pavlovna Andropova. Her talents, her beauty, and her sultry charms completely seduce Jake and though he has a girlfriend back home, falls head over heels in love with her. An ex-wife, a girlfriend, a lover in Moscow, along with a very dangerous entanglement with a Russian oligarch, all threaten to shatter Jake's heretofore complacent bourgeois life.
