In the late 1970s, self-assured Stephen O'Connell escapes small-town culture to seek a new life elsewhere where fresh ideas-and people, like the brilliant anti-feminist Madeleine Benson, musical genius Bryce, and earthy Julie-pull his soul in opposing directions. 'By chance' he prevents the murder of a Ugandan refugee, catapulting him irrevocably into a world of both need and danger. Black-and-white thinking is of no help to Stephen when he encounters the blood-red reality of violence in East Africa as a project developer some years later. On the edge of the Rwandan genocide, he must confront...