Evie Fraser, paid companion to a crotchety spinster, seems destined for a lonely life. Out of the blue, Evie gets a marriage proposal by post. She's met the handsome Douglas Barrington just once – at his wedding – but has never forgotten him. Now widowed, Douglas offers her a new life in lush and exotic Penang island where he's a rubber planter. And Evie can't resist.
But what are Barrington's motives in marrying Evie when he barely knows her, and why is he so hostile and moody?
Battling Douglas on the one hand and the shallow and often spiteful world of the expatriate British on the other, has Evie made the biggest mistake of her life?
Flynn's tenth novel tackles her familiar territory of love, marriage, the impact of war and the challenges of displacement – this time in a tropical paradise as the threat of the Japanese empire looms closer.