An invention is provided for a synchronous transfer of control. An asynchronous interrupt exception is received, and in response, the value of a reference counter is determined. The value of the reference counter is based on the execution of synchronized code. Generally, the reference counter is initialized to a predetermined number, and altered based on the execution of synchronized code. When the asynchronous interrupt exception is received, the method is asynchronously interrupted when the value of the reference counter is equal to the predetermined number.