With her perfect figure and beguiling brown eyes, Christine Tyler wields an uncanny power over men. But behind her child-like gaze lies a dark, destructive secret. Desperate to escape unhappy memories in her Devon family home, she flees to London and lives the high life with her glamorous older cousin. Before long, though, she feels restless, and a career in the army beckons. Tall, tanned, handsome and titled, Martin Winthrop has it all. As heir to the Winthrop estate and Earldom, his father expects him to continue the family's 200-year tradition and join the army. A rebellious phase leads him on wild nights out in London with his friend Leon Morton, where fine women are only ever a phone call away. But everything comes at a price, and he finds himself tangled in a web with the dangerous Italian East Ender, Philip Monza. Years later, Major Winthrop is posted on a top-secret joint intelligence mission to Istanbul with the enigmatic Captain Tyler. The chemistry between them is electric, but they must focus on the mission objective: to pin down the perpetrators of a series of murders targeting former German officers from the Second World War. But all is not as it seems, and the deeper they dig, the more worrying connections to his past Martin finds.