Adam, a forestry expert from rural Devon, is seconded to Indonesia for six months by a large pulp and paper company to help combat illegal logging. Shocked by the scale of destruction despite new regulations and efforts by environmental groups, Adam becomes side-tracked by the many distractions of the chaotic Indonesian capital, Jakarta. Little does he know that the people that lured him to the city in the first place are orchestrating his fate. Meanwhile, his wife Heather remains with their two daughters in the sleepy backwaters of England's West Country. She finds herself starting to resent Adam for the adventure she imagines he is having and begins to question her own life as well as events from her past. The book is set in contemporary Indonesia and provides insights into one of the largest cities in the world, Jakarta. Burdened with global expectation due to record economic growth, the city is struggling to reconcile with an emerging new identity that is a blend of fervent democracy, liberal Muslim views combined with doses of nationalism, a pervasive sex industry and an emerging spending class obsessed with Western consumerism.