Richard McAllister, a young minister in the government, has temporarily left the Cabinet while recovering from being stabbed by a thug at a football match. He has decided, while recuperating, to go to South Africa to research a relative in the Boer War. While in Mafeking, he is called back to London because his passionate affair with the actress Joanna Jermyn has become public knowledge.
From that moment on, the love affair becomes almost impossibly fraught. The press continue to hound them, the government spin doctors try to suppress all news and Joanna's husband becomes very vindictive. The Prime Minister, Richard's close friend, asks him if there is any connection between his apparently random stabbing, and the affair. The lovers are parted, and Joanna goes to America.
This is a novel about contemporary politics, the power of film, the nature of history and above all about two people caught hopelessly in love, subject to the stresses of fame and scandal.
