Life has not been kind to Lydia Bryant - and love has been downright cruel. Orphaned at 16 and brought up by her uncle, a Shropshire Rector, she marries Donald, a handsome soldier many years her senior at 21. But tragedy strikes once more as his terrifyingly violent mood-swings are revealed, condemning her to a lifetime of torture and torment. So when Donald dies, some 6 years later, her first thought is that she is free at last! Free of her hateful husband, but facing a life without love. Throwing off the shackles of stiflingly shallow English Society, Lydia embarks on a thrilling adventure - and, from genteel Malvern via the heat and hustle of Cairo, she finds herself in the parched and primitive Sudan - surely the last place on Earth anyone would hope to find love?