Granville Jones is at the end of his life—once a famous, world-roving correspondent, now self-exiled on an island emirate in the Gulf, an old and forgotten man, long eclipsed by rising stars of television journalism. When the coup breaks it seems that Jones is the last to know. As this story of the early 1950s unfolds, we learn of the great love affair that brought "Gran" Jones to his island. Both that ancient love and the indissoluble bonds between Jones and the deposed emir are caught up by the old man’s professional demon. We follow Jones, move by move, playing his endgame with the fragments of physical and mental powers still vouchsafed in him. Though it contains pain and tragedy, this finely wrought and moving novel tells of a life redeemed by the commitment of its protagonist to his métier.