North Africa, 23 October 1942. The eve of El Alamein, the battle that turned the Second World War. The greatest artillery barrage in the history of warfare is about to be unleashed. Within twelve days the Axis forces will be in full retreat, their dreams of controlling the Mediterranean and seizing the Suez Canal shattered. RAF fighter pilot, Englishman Kit Curtis, is in an unarmed photo-reconnaissance Spitfire, reporting Axis movements, and Ossie Wolf, American volunteer, is seconded to fly in a covert operation behind enemy lines. Since they flew together during the Siege of Malta, both men have taken different paths, Curtis following his conscience, Wolf insouciant and headstrong, killer in the air, liability on the ground. But Alamein unites them in a desperate struggle for survival. And together they encounter the commander of the Axis forces, the Desert Fox himself.