In the book, the United Kingdom and Nazi Germany have negotiated a peace treaty after the destruction of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in the Battle of Dunkirk.

Following on directly from events in Saville's previous novel The Afrika Reich, the protagonist, Burton Cole, returns home to Britain to find that his lover, Madeleine, has vanished.

He visits the scuppered cruiseliner, the Wilhelm Gustloff, which is moored off the island and holds the records of all the Jews on Madagascar and learns of Madeleine’s address in the town of Antsohihy.

As Burton tracks down Madeleine across the island, and Hochburg and Globus clash over the physicists, the strands of the novel come together at Mandritsara, the location of a secret Nazi medical facility.

Along with the Nazi leadership, a number of real figures appear as characters in the book: A review in Publishers Weekly wrote that "Saville's attention to detail is manifest throughout".