Charlotte was the first-wildly beautiful, wildly frustrated-who married her soldier husband solely to escape from the claustrophobic respectability of Victorian life in Richmond. When she reached the British lines in Kabul she was bewitched and fascinated by the exotic world of Afghanistan-and by Alexander Bewick, the scandalous adventurer who aroused an instant response in Charlotte's rebellious heart. As the city of Kabul turned into a hell of bloodshed and misery, Charlotte was forced to choose between her devoted husband and her reckless lover.

Alexandra lived-always-in the shadow of her legendary grandmother, Charlotte. Reared in a gloomy Scottish castle by a mother who resented her, she finally had to reach out and try to create a life of her own.

Cara had inherited the wildness, the passion, and also the selfishness of her great-grandmother Charlotte. Smouldering with resentment because she had to help care for her crippled mother when her friends were all joining up at the outbreak of WWll, she finally found, as the tragedies of the war began to erode her life, that she also had the courage of Charlotte-a courage that was eventually to bring her happiness.