On a distant island a man waits. Robbed of his position, power and wealth, his enemies have left him in isolation. But this is no ordinary man, and this no ordinary island. Prospero is a magician, able to control the very elements and bend nature to his will. When a sail appears on the horizon, he reaches out across the ocean to the ship that carries the men who wronged him. Creating a vast magical storm he wrecks the ship and washes his enemies up on the shore. When they wake they find themselves lost on a fantastical island where nothing is as it seems.

Tessa is a brilliant British defence barrister dominating London’s ruthless courtrooms. Fierce, witty, and self-made, she defends men accused of sexual assault — until she is assaulted herself by a colleague from a powerful legal dynasty. Suddenly, the system she trusted turns against her. As she faces the same tactics she once used in court, Tessa’s faith in justice unravels. Once in control, now exposed and disbelieved, she must fight to reclaim her voice and sense of self.

In 1943, two British intelligence officers concoct Operation Mincemeat, wherein their plan to drop a corpse with false papers off the coast of Spain would fool Nazi spies into believing the Allied forces were planning to attack by way of Greece rather than Sicily.