War-time France - intrigue, deception and divided loyalties. Under the Mediterranean sun, a shadowy world where ambivalence and compromise test loyalties to breaking point. Alec Ross is an innocent born at the outset of the twentieth century. This gripping novel explores his journey through its first half as he finds himself almost accidentally drawn into the murky by-ways of espionage. His life has been one of avoided commitment and abandoned relationships, but now he sees young men and women, escapees and their resistance helpers rise to heights of bravery. He also sees corruption and squalor, and the horrors of Nazism. Amidst the extremes of humanity at both its best and its worst, he struggles to work out what matters to him in an existence where nothing is what it seems. Till the very end, the question persists: will Alec commit himself to a cause and to the woman he loves, or will he surrender in the face of demands which are finally too complicated for this simple man? Start reading and you won't stop till you find out.