A tale of war, of Italy, of a beautiful young woman and a terrible tragedy from the number one bestselling author of Songs of Love and War. Italy, 1945. The war is over but its shadow still lingers. And deep in the lush countryside, an eccentric aristocrat is savagely murdered in his beautiful palazzo. London, 1971. Years later, this unsolved crime touches the life of Alba, a hedonistic girl who lives on a houseboat in swinging Chelsea. Between these two distinctive times runs a thread of love, decadence and betrayal that takes Alba to the olive groves of the Amalfi Coast, rich with the scent of figs, the drama of wartime and the lingering decay of tragedy. The past unfolds revealing a secret web of partisans and Nazis, peasants and counts and in the centre of it all, an alluring woman of mystery: her mother...