Wrapped in the roots of the sycamore was a skeleton… the remains of a woman, between twenty-five and thirty years of age. She had carried a child…

As the Second World War draws to a close, Intelligence Officer Gus Clifton surprises his sisters at their London home. But an even greater shock is the woman he brings with him, Krista – the German wife whom he has married secretly in Berlin.

Krista is clearly devastated by her experiences at the hands of the triumphant allies – all but broken by horrors she cannot share. But Gus’s sisters can only see the enemy their brother has brought under their roof. And their friend Nella, Gus’s beautiful, loyal fiancée, cannot understand what made Gus change his mind about their marriage. What hold does Krista have over their honourable and upright Gus? And how can the three women get her out of their home, their future, their England?

Haunted by passion, betrayal and misunderstanding these damaged people are propelled towards a spectacular resolution.

‘A page turner with a big heart’ – Stylist

‘No one writes a cliff-hanger scene like Buchan’ – Kate Williams in The Week

‘Buchan brilliantly captures the blighted atmosphere of blitzed London’ – Daily Mail