The Cold War is coming to an end, as the Soviet Union holds free elections and the Berlin Wall is breached. Dan Leyland is chairing a conference of European NGOs in Perugia, and he observes that some of his colleagues are unhappy about having their political illusions shattered. He gets to know an Italian contessa who is acting as an interpreter, and when she confides in him about her troubled marriage he glimpses the possibility that his own post-marital loneliness could be coming to an end. But events do not always work out as expected - neither in politics nor in personal relationships. This volume is the third in The Peacekeepers trilogy; and when Dan talks with his parents and their group of friends, whose lives were completely disrupted by events in 'far away countries' in the 1930s, they tell him of their hopes and fears for a better future. The action moves from London to Switzerland, Germany and Italy, and back to London. Some of the events are predictable and others are not.