Set in Australia, East Timor and Washington in the lead-up to the 1999 independence referendum, Nicholas Jose's novel is a political mystery, a portrait of a marriage, and a study of a personality breaking under pressure. Jake, an Australian defence analyst, is torn between his support for the people of East Timor and his complicity in his government's actions. When he is found dead in the garage of his Washington home after passing secret intelligence, his wife Anne is determined to see justice done.