Against the background of 1960s London and Australia and the Middle East in the 1980s two friends at university, Maggie and Hugh are drawn to each other from first meeting. Many years later, Maggie's hopes of a more intimate relationship revive. But a young refugee hiding from sinister assailants involves them in a dangerous conspiracy. A bibliomaniac American, a mysterious confidence man, an Australian musicologist trying to solve her friend's murder, the teetotal monk who runs a vineyard, elderly paedophiles seeking refuge from the world...even Maggie's research into the Templars are met along the way