A third adventure for Sir Edward Leithen, in which Leithen befriends young Vernon Milburne, a man haunted by an annually recurring dream in which some dark and mysterious challenge moves year by year closer. After the war, as the culmination of Vernon's dream approaches, both men meet—and take an instant dislike to—Miss Koré Arabin, a young Englishwoman who has inherited a remote Greek island from her disreputable father. Miss Arabin is determined to return to the island to atone for the sins of her family, despite the bitter hostility of its inhabitants ...