Winner of the San Diego Book Award prize for Best Novel in Progress. Tibet, 1954. The highest pass of the Himalayas is enveloped in silence save the flapping of prayer flags. Seven thousand feet below, two Americans travelling on foot arrive in the remote town of Shigatse, intending to make it their new home. Steeped in the Quaker tradition of non-violence and longing to live in a society that has embraced pacifism for centuries, Emma and Gerald Kittredge are soon happily adopted by their Tibetan neighbours. But the arrival of Maoist soldiers into their quiet life shatters everything...