“Long before the outbreak of the Second World War, even before the end of the Spanish Civil War, defeated, disappointed, abandoned by their compatriots and rejected by the government, which branded them as supporters of communism, almost all the surviving fighters of the International Brigade. Lincoln returned to the United States in hopes of starting a new life as civilians. But not all of them returned. Among those who remained were those who, on a small coasting vessel, together with a motley crew of outcasts, were engaged in a risky trade in the Mediterranean Sea, especially in wartime - smuggling."

The action in this story chronologically takes place between the first ("No Man's earth") and the second ("Captain Riley") novels in the "Captain Riley" series.