Cairo, 1917. Thomas Laurie was much needed; a village policeman and honourable man, he kept the peace at home, even in war. Yet driven by conscience and the stares of strangers, he`d entered an army enlisting office in Worcester and jumped. Now, owned by King and country he was thousands of miles from those he loved, holed up in a rat-infested carpet shop in a Cairo backstreet. Somewhere opposite within the gloom of a tired hostel was the spy. He and Corporal Nooney would sort it, they always did. But still the doubts nagged: Mildred Lowthian, his senior officer at the Arab Bureau was unlike any woman he`d known, but she too seemed burdened by the duplicity of superiors. And the ignorance and disdain of those with power had shocked. Who was he really helping?

At the same hour in her farmhouse on the Spanish island of Menorca, the formidable self-made landowner Llucia Quintana sat fearing for the safety of Oriol, her only son and heir. His routine trading trip to Cairo was to be his last; Mediterranean passage had become increasingly hostile and British control of the city unpredictable. He`d not made contact; but how could she rely upon others for help given her past?