It is 1942 and the island of Malta is under siege by a triumphant German air force. Out of the smoke and magnesium glare of bomb-blast steps Rocco Raven, native of Brooklyn, New York, apprentice radioman and expert car mechanic. His only contact is an American intelligence officer, Jack Fingerly, whose rank upgrades with their every meeting and whose purpose is known to no-one but himself. Far from finding a role for Rocco, Fingerly leaves him to face the chaos alone.
On only his third day there, his billet, on the top floor of a brothel, is blown to pieces., Without contacts or belongings, Rocco is left to wander the devastated streets of Valletta in a bewildered daze until he sees an apparition, a beautiful, ethereal woman. She is Melita, the Jukebox Queen of Malta, who spends her time delivering the jukeboxes wrought from old automobile and gramophone parts to the bars and restaurants which must entice the beleaguered civilian and military populations.
It is the beginning of an extraordinary relationship, at once passionate and guarded, which flourishes as the island's fortuntes decline. Under the threat of starvation and in a world infused with the eccentricities of war, Rocco's seems to be the lone voice of sanity, until he too is infected by the madness around him and succumbs to the voluntary thrill of danger . . .
