Set against the background of the chaotic East Congo, the story involves the planning of a Western-backed coup in the province of Kivu, told from the worm's-eye view of the hapless interpreter.

Although the events are fictional, the book evokes a rich and detailed picture of the political and ethnic tensions of the region, highlighting the greed and amorality of local bureaucrats and Western interests, and calling attention to the apathy of the British press about the continuing humanitarian crisis of the Congo War.

He is educated in England, and as a fluent speaker and aficionado of "disappearing indigenous languages of Eastern Congo",[1] he finds a natural calling as a specialist interpreter, employed by London's hospitals, law courts, city corporations, and British intelligence.

En route from a rendezvous with Hannah to a party thrown for his journalist wife, he is offered an urgent job by his handler at the Ministry of Defence to serve as an interpreter at a conference between Congolese warlords and their putative Western backers, the nameless "Syndicate".

He learns that their objective is to eject Kivu's Rwandan occupiers and install a liberal, benevolent politician dubbed "the Mwangaza" as the head.