The novel is set in southern Africa (mainly South Africa and Angola) and the Cayman Islands in the early 1990s, at the time when South Africa was still ruled by the apartheid regime and when competing nationalist movements (including UNITA) were fighting for independence in Angola. This is a pacy thriller involving gun-running and diamond smuggling set against the background of the disturbed political situation and the involvement of BOSS (the South African security service) and the CIA.