Reem is twenty, bright and strikingly attractive. Nick is twenty-seven and, on his first posting abroad to a beautiful country torn apart by war, he is determined to make the world a better place. And though it seems a stroke of remarkably good fortune, it is by no means an accident when they meet in a fashionable bar, for Reem is a newly-trained terrorist, and has been sent out deliberately to distract Nick.

Nick has what Reem needs: access out of the city's besieged western sector, and to a notorious rightwing warlord who has his sights set on the country's presidency. For Reem, the fight is personal; she has lost both her family and her home, everything she has ever valued. So she volunteers for the ultimate mission: a suicide attack. And once Nick understands the truth, he needs to make a choice - to follow his heart, or carry out what his contacts at the British embassy insist is his duty.