Marian Sutro has survived Ravensbruck and is now back in dreary 1950s London trying to pick up the pieces of her pre-war life. De-briefed by the same shadowy branch of the secret service that sent her to Paris to extract a French atomic scientist, Marian is now plunged into the cold war. Simon Mawer's sense of time and place is perfect and this is another compelling novel about identity and deception which constantly surprises the reader.