Koning brilliantly analyzes a doomed love affair set against the events leading to the defeat of the British army by the Zulus at Isandhlwana in South Africa in 1879.

Paris, 1945. Frederick Rowlands arrives in a city riven by the political turmoil following the Liberation at the behest of MI5 agent, Iris Barnes. A young woman calling herself Clara Metzner has just been released from Ravensbrück concentration camp - and Rowlands, who last met her in Berlin in 1933, has been given the task of confirming whether she is who she says she is. This is far from easy, not only because of Rowlands' blindness, but because Clara's experiences have changed her almost out of recognition. But her evidence may be vital in assisting Iris to track down suspected...

Oxford, 1942. Frederick Rowlands receives an urgent summons to the university city from his old friend - also a blinded war veteran - Major Ian Fraser. They are to meet Professor Duncan Challoner, Fellow of Brasenose College, now working with MI5 at nearby Blenheim Palace. Challoner is about to divulge the identity of an enemy agent at Blenheim - but is murdered before he can do so. Also taking an interest in the case is MI5 agent Iris Barnes, who has her own reasons for wanting to track down the traitor. Now the race is on to find the murderer before he - or she - can kill again, and to...