A lush novel set during the Japanese invasion of Malaya-from the national bestselling author of The Russian Concubine. Malaya, 1941. Connie Thornton plays her role as a dutiful wife and mother without complaint. She is among the fortunate, after all-a member of the British rubber plantation owners, reaping the benefits of colonial life. But Connie feels as though she is oppressed, crippled by boredom, sweltering heat, and a loveless marriage...

Then in December the Japanese invade. Connie and her family flee, sailing south on their yacht toward Singapore, where the British are certain to stand firm against the Japanese. En route, in the company of friends, they learn that Singapore is already under siege. Increasingly desperate and short of food, the yacht's inhabitants make their perilous way from island to island. When a fighter plane crashes into the sea, they rescue its Japanese pilot. For Connie, that's when everything changes. In the suffocating confines of the boat, with her life upended, Connie discovers a new kind of freedom and an exciting, dangerous, exhilarating love.