Peter, a young American student at Columbia University, yearns to visit Spain. After graduation, his dream comes true and he travels to Madrid where he strikes up a friendship with a Spaniard his age.His new friend invites him to spend a few days in a small village in Segovia. It's New Year's Eve and on the way they rescue an English woman whose car has broken down. They invite her to stay too and there follows an idyllic but short-lived few days together.Meanwhile, in the immediate post-Franco era, the ETA movement is gaining recruits in its struggle for Basque independence. Rafael is a young man with a grudge, and as a successful candidate, he's led into an audacious but flawed kidnap plan.Milner successfully draws together his characters in a well-woven plot in which their fates are sealed - a truly haunting story of the light and the darkness of Spain.K. W. Milner is an American, born in Lakewood, Ohio. He graduated from Middlebury College in Vermont and obtained his master's degree in international economics at the University of Pennsylvania.He has lived a number of years in Europe, including Germany, England and Spain, and currently lives with his Spanish wife and two sons and two daughters in Madrid.