The beloved actor and screenwriter' s first novel, set during World War I, delicately and elegantly explores a most unusual romance. It' s almost the end of the war and Paul Peachy, a young railway employee and amateur actor in Milwaukee, realizes his marriage is one-sided. He enlists, and ships off to France. Peachy instantly realizes how out of his depth he is-- and never more so than when he is captured. Risking everything, Peachy-- who as a child of immigrants speaks German-- makes the reckless decision to impersonate one of the enemy' s most famous spies. As the urbane and accomplished spy Harry Stroller, Peachy has access to a world he could never have known existed-- a world of sumptuous living, world-weary men, and available women. But when one of those women-- Annie, a young, beautiful and wary courtesan-- turns out to be more than she seems, Peachy' s life is transformed forever.