Valerie de Chavannes, a financier's daughter, summons Kayankaya to her villa in Frankfurt's diplomat's quarter and commissions him to find her missing sixteen-year-old daughter. She is alleged to be with an older man who is posing as an artist. To Kayankaya, it seems like a simple case: an upper class girl with a taste for adventure. Then another seemingly posh job turns up: a major publisher needs to protect a writer who has offended Islamist groups...

A multi-generational family story set in the Germany of the early twentieth century that reveals the devastating effect of war on the human heart.

Sold to be the eighth wife of a rich and cruel merchant, Safia, also called Raka, tries to escape her fate by telling stories of Farhad the thief, his companion Nitish the white tiger, and their travels across India to retrieve a famous jewel that will save a kidnapped princess from becoming the bride of a demon king.

Nicholas is invited to a birthday party by the girl next door, plays a very messy game of chess, and learns that walking on your hands is much harder than turning somersaults.