Set in North Africa, summer 1942, during Rommel`s campaign against the British. This is the story of Alex Wolff, master spy, who treks across the Sahara and covertly enters the plot-ridden streets of wartime Cairo. And of Major Vandam, the British officer who is on Wolff`s trail, sworn to destroy him. Wolff`s mission is to steal British military plans and send them to Rommel, using a code whose key is buried in the pages of Daphne du Maurier`s novel Rebecca. As Rommel`s troops come closer to victory, Vandam edges closer to Wolff and the crucial key. There are incredible chase scenes: a motorcycle hurtling through blacked-out Cairo; the flash of a knife, a gush of hot blood, and the fleeting shadow of an escaping assassin; a harrowing race against death and a speeding train. Follett builds tension and suspense to a screaming pitch as he follows the adversaries across the internal desert to a confrontation as startling as it is explosive.