Set during World War ll, follow the fortunes of two people who would never have met had their nations not been at war. Bruno Haslinger is an Austrian graduate at the outset, intent on working as a linguist. Instead, his fluency with the English language finds him inducted into the Abwehr, the Nazi Intelligence service, and despatched to Northern England on a secret mission. Alice Dodds is a farmer's daughter in Northumberland. She is the first British person that he encounters on landing. They share a brief bus ride, but the foundations of something much greater are laid in those pivotal few minutes.