Just as a man had laboured and sweated and clawed his way to the summit of the mountain, a sudden storm came and swept him away... He would soon find himself thrown down and fractured in the valley - if not dead.

Britain's Prime Minister, Nigeria's military dictator, the UN Secretary General, the Americans, and Sierra Leone's exiled President are on a joint mission 'to save democracy' in diamond-rich Sierra Leone. Yet, each has their own parallel agenda to overturn a coup d'etat.

British ambassador Mark Fergusson's family, trapped by fate in the murky waters of international diplomacy, tries to wriggle itself out of the do-or-die drama of the former British colony.

The situation is further embroiled in a racism row involving the Crown, as the Queen's great granddaughter - Mark's daughter - strays from the norm in a tumultuous 'lovebird story'...

Hand in hand with all this is a Sierra Leonean journalist's fateful battle against the odds in the 'same mission' for democracy in his war-ravaged country.