A historical novel based on a true but unexplored aspect of the First World War—the selling of cocaine to both sides by the Dutch—woven around a story of personal betrayal and self-deception.

On July 31, 1917, Robin Ryder, the twenty-six-year-old Englishman, clambers from his trench on a Flanders battlefield and charges fearlessly towards the German lines. Heavily wounded by a German grenade, half his mutilated face will have to be hidden behind a mask.

Lucien Hirschland, the traveling salesman of the flourishing Dutch Cocaine Factory, is supplying both sides with drugs to make their soldiers more reckless in the face of overwhelming danger. Closing deals with both the Germans and the British, he flaunts his newfound wealth.

At the war's end, extraordinary circumstances find Ryder living in the Hirschland family home where he is lovingly welcomed by Lucien's younger sister, Swanee. Expectations and illusions grow as their lives spin out of control and they learn that the war veteran has more to hide than his mutilated face.

Conny Braam helped set up and then led the Dutch Anti-Apartheid Movement. Her books include Operatie Vulva, De Bokkeslachter, and Zwavel, a trilogy of novels about the family Abraham.