It is 1937 and Private Investigator Maisie Dobbs has not been back home to England for the last four years. She had thought that she had found love when sudden tragedy struck and both her husband and unborn child were killed in an accident. Finally on her way home, she makes a stop at the English garrison of Gibraltar, "a dangerous place" everyone assures her now with the war in Spain heating up. It is here that Maisie becomes embroiled in yet another mystery of murder and political intrigue. It is here that Maisie must reconcile her past with her future.