Tessa Quayle, the lovely wife of a member of the British Foreign Service based in Nairobi, is killed in a mysterious car accident near a lake in Kenya. Tessa was an activist who had recently come across sensitive documents exposing an international corporate conspiracy to exploit Kenya`s poor. Tessa`s husband, Justin, has been a mild-mannered official for decades, but when he decides to get to the bottom of Tessa`s death, he discovers that he has an unexpected capacity to go against the grain. He`ll need it, as his journey to the truth takes him through levels of corporate and diplomatic intrigue in Kenya, Great Britain, Italy, Germany and Canada.