Charlie Johnson is a veteran war correspondent who thinks he has seen it all until he makes one rash expedition into a Balkan war zone. He watches helplessly as a woman who sheltered him is set on fire. From then on, his life is consumed by the mission to find the man who did it, caught on film by his friend and cameraman, Jacek.

Drawing on his own experience of war zones, Michael Ignatieff probes the damage that blights Charlie’s life and threatens to destroy his humanity, the result of years of reporting terrible events. Charlie has people who love him—his family in London, and generous, tough colleagues like Jacek and the indefatigable and beautiful Etta. But once he sets out on his journey of revenge, nothing and no one can stop him.