Malaya, 1953, Max Mawlinson is fighting a war on two fronts. One, an unacknowledged war of ideas against Britain's former allies. The other, a more personal battle as he tries to make sense of, and to atone for, his father's surrender, eleven years before. Max's journey is further complicated when, against all conventions, he falls in love with the daughter of the rubber planter whose estate Max has been charged to protect. But his emotional awakening is prematurely cauterized by the moral ambiguities of the new Cold War, and he's left with no choice but to take justice into his own hands in a dishonourable compromise that will define the rest of his life.