The perils of wartime add special urgency to the latest mysteries being investigated by Nuala Anne McGrail. More than a little fey, Nuala has a well-deserved reputation for getting to the bottom of even the most tangled intrigues, even when they may be taking place on the other side of the world. Desmond Doolin, an idealistic young man from the McGrails' West Side Chicago neighbourhood, has gone missing in Iraq. The US government denies any knowledge of his whereabouts, and his grieving family has all but written him off as dead. But Nuala is convinced that there's more to the story...and she won't stop asking questions until she finds out what has really become of Desmond, one way or another. Meanwhile, a parallel investigation uncovers the story of another young man abroad in dangerous times. Poking around in the past, Nuala happens upon the memoirs of Timothy Patrick Clarke, the Irish ambassador to Nazi Germany, who risked his life for the sake of a beautiful German widow...and a secret plot to kill Adolf Hitler.