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.