London 1945, VE Day

And for Edward Fairfax, a strange sense of anti-climax. Newly commissioned and eager to join the fighting, it seems the war has passed him by.

A sense of mystery too. "Operation Joshua", behind enemy lines, has been a disaster. His father is blamed and threatened with court martial, yet no-one will tell Edward the truth.

A sense also of impending violence. A chance meeting with the beautiful Carole Romm will cast long shadows into his future. As the war in Europe ends, another begins in Palestine.

The birth of the State of Israel is to be marked by bitterness and bloodshed. Edward will see action, not on the battlefields of Europe as he had dreamed, but in a harsh land where the enemy is unseen, and where Jewish and Arab extremists have only one thing in common: hatred of the British Empire.