Red Earth Durban, South Africa, a car is hijacked. Suzanne Fessey fights back and kills one thief but the other, wounded, escapes with her baby onboard. In pursuit of the missing vehicle and baby are helicopter tracker pilot Nia Carras from the air, and Mike Dunn, a nearby wildlife researcher, from the ground. But South Africa's police have bigger problems: a bomb has gone off in Durban, killing the visiting American Ambassador, and chaos has descended on Kwa-Zulu Natal. As the missing baby is tracked through the wild game reserves from Zululand to Zimbabwe, Mike and Nia come to realise that the war on terror has invaded their part of the world. African Sky Paul Bryant hasn't been able to get back in a plane since a fatal bombing mission over Germany. So, instead, the Squadron Leader is flying a desk at a pilot training school at Kumalo air base, Rhodesia. Pip Lovejoy, a volunteer policewoman, is also trying to suppress painful memories. When Felicity Langham, a high-profile WAAF from the air base, is found raped and murdered, Pip and Bryant's paths cross. Pip unearths a link between the Squadron Leader, the controversial heiress Catherine De Beers and the dead woman. What Pip thinks is a singular crime of passion soon escalates into a crisis that could change the course of the war.