"Gerald Rayner spends the last two years of his life trying to find a mystery woman who could be dead. This gets him embroiled in the UK's Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, as it struggles to meet the demands of a changing and uncertain world in which terrorism takes over as the major threat to our daily lives. He writes his story for Dan, a ski-ing friend, to be read only after his death. It reveals some intimate truths about their relationship, and some disturbing secrets about governments and their agents doing terrible things. Sometimes they have to, in order to prevent a greater evil, but when it involves a loved one, can it be justified? Can it be forgiven? Or does it call for revenge?"