A young English evacuee assists in the defection of a German officer. The tragic outcome sends his family searching for truth and closure.
His marriage is in trouble and his business has failed, but David Collins is determined to investigate an old family tragedy and to bring closure to a huge void in his life. For years he has wondered what caused his twelve year old brother to leave his billet on a December night and disappear from an isolated beach.
Along with a reluctant cousin and the cousin's keenly interested wife, David travels to England to peel back layers of family history and official deceptions. They examine the brother's time in pre-war London and the months he spent in Cornwall as an evacuee.
The activities of a beautiful billeting official come into question. Her affair with a young police constable and her deep involvement in a local MI-5 operation are revealed, and so is her request for Paul to run a very strange errand. The final clues to his brother’s fate are discovered in an envelope containing his childhood keepsakes.
The investigation serves up many surprises. But one extraordinary secret shocks David to his core and changes his life forever.
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