The year is 1914 and the fissures of the war are spreading across Europe. A Russian cruiser Zhemtchug is sunk off the coast of Penang by the German warship Emden. From amid the wreckage, a local fisherman and his son rescue a baby. They deliver her to the Sisters at the Convent Light Street, where she is named Agnè s for she is holy and pure. Agnè s grows into a fiercely intelligent and restless young woman against the backdrop of the Second World War and the Malayan Emergency. Haunted by a past she cannot remember in a world that is rapidly changing, she grapples with finding herself-- and enduring happiness. Buried deep within Agnè s is loss and an intense yearning to belong. But in a nation where loyalty is tested as identities are contested, will she ever find a place and people she can claim as her own?