Father Salvatore was a simple, lumbering priest, a Kappillan serving the poor Valetta, when war came out of the blue skies to pound the island to dust. Now amid the catacombs discovered by a chance bomb, he cared for the flood of homeless, starving, frightened people who sought shelter from the death that fell unceasingly from the sky.

For the people of Malta in 1942, suffering daily bombing raids from the Luftwaffe, the British Army represent their only hope of defending their lone outpost in Nazi waters. And it is Max Chadwick's job to make certain the islanders keep thinking that.