When Fatima, an asylum-seeker from Kazakhstan, asks Duncan for a bird's eye view of Western history he takes her to the British Museum and other windows on the past. As secretary-general of an international think-tank he works with Paula, a beautiful Ugandan, analysing UN failure in Darfur. And when his sensual friend, Helen, tells him she's looking for a husband but rejects his proposal, he realizes his urgent need for someone to share his bed. But he fears the scars of a bomb-blast and a divorce make him unattractive.