Paris, the early sixties: Paul van Heerden is the only South African the French Foreign Office will listen to. And yet, at the time of the Sharpeville massacre, Ambassador van Heerden is having an affair with the promiscuous, seductive Nicolette, also the mistress of Stephen Keyter, the Embassy's Third Secretary. Van Heerden and Keyter are both seduced by the potent sensuality of the city's night life, and this, more than events at home is what brings the novel to its shocking climax.

Each man in turn tells his story and Brink juxtaposes the shameless hypocrisy of one against the honesty and humanity of the other. In the end, however, both men fall foul of the system--and both have a terrible price to pay.