Andrew Mallory is an anthropologist who has returned from "his island" to London for the Christmas holiday. The island is described as an idyllic place, whose primitive denizens are much more civilized than Londoners. At a party he meets a young lady, who is murdered at a club that same evening. He meets another woman and falls quickly and inexplicably in love with her.

With this woman, named Emmi, he sets out to find and rescue a group of 50 children who have been kidnapped as part of the war in the middle of Europe. The two characters have a bizarre relationship. Events proceed with little comprehensibility t an ultimately not-too-bad resolution.

The novel is so strange that I finished it just to see what the author was up to, and whether she could bring it to a satisfactory conclusion. The ending makes some sense, but the journey there was confusing and frustrating. ( )