"The drama of an English missionary couple. Posted to South Africa they become anti-apartheid activists and are jailed. Released, they move to Botswana where she gives birth to twins, but a black servant abducts them and only one boy is recovered. Although they have more children, the incident poisons their lives. By the author of An Experiment in Love."
"A New York Times Notable Book Ralph and Anna Eldred are an exemplary couple, devoting themselves to doing good. Thirty years ago as missionaries in Africa, the worst that could happen did. Shattered by their encounter with inexplicable evil, they returned to England, never to speak of it again. But when Ralph falls into an affair, Anna finds no forgiveness in her heart, and thirty years of repressed rage and grief explode, destroying not only a marriage but also their love, their faith, and everything they thought they were."@en
"Ralph and Anna Eldred live in the big Red House in Norfolk, raising their four children and devoting thier lives to charity. The constant flood of children plucked from the squalor of the East London streets for a breath of fresh countryside air hides the growing crises in thier own family. Memories of thier time as missionaries in South Africa and Botswana, of the terrible African tragedies that have shaped the rest of their lives, refuse to be put to rest and threaten to destroy the fragile peace they have built for themselves and their children."@en