Dropping into the smoky chaos of Peshawar after 9/11, Skelly, a burned-out American foreign correspondent, discovers that to survive in Peshawar's swirling humanity he will need a fixer: a local man who speaks English, knows the area, and is a jack-of-all-trades who can both save his skin and take him to the action. And for journalists in Peshawar, the real action is in Afghanistan.

Skelly chooses Najeeb, the banished son of a tribal warlord. Soon they are driving dusty roads westward in the shadowy wake of ex-Mujahadeen Mahmood Razaq, tipped to claim leadership of the next regime. Skelly's quest for the scoop of a lifetime means tracking down the one man the whole world is seeking.

And Najeeb, torn by divided loyalties, must find the way for both of them, in a land where a single misstep - or lapse of trust - can prove fatal.