SOMEWHERE A BIRD IS SINGING Sally is an orphan living in Plymouth's Barbican, where a vile trade flourishes in young girls, duped and shipped off to the brothels of Europe. She finds employment delivering wares for a local shop, meeting fisherman Ethan and Eva, a Salvation Army captain, who has dedicated her life to rescuing the endangered girls. When Ethan, his father and brothers are reported missing at sea on a fishing ship, Sally volunteers to help Eva's crusade - with near disastrous results. SINGING SPEARS Daniel Retallick has grown to manhood during the years of flood tide in the chronicles of Africa. The son of Josh and Miriam Retallick, he settles with his wife and children in a valley of Matabeleland. But the years are the 1880s, and the Matabele impis are advancing with their singing spears towards the death-dealing Maxim guns of the white man. Daniel Retallick's loyalties, plans and dreams are about to be swept by fate into the whirlpool of history...