London On a bright July morning a series of bombs brings the capital to a halt Simon Swann, a medic from one of the large teaching hospitals, is searching frantically amongst the chaos and the rubble All around police sirens and ambulances are screaming but Simon does not hear He is out of breath because he has been running, and he is distraught But who is he looking for? To find out we have first to go back thirty years to a small island in the Indian Ocean where a little girl named Alice Fonseka is learning to ride a bicycle on the beach The island is Sri Lanka, and its community is on the brink of civil war Alice's life is about to change forever Soon she will have to leave for England, abandoning her beloved grandfather, and accompanied by her mother Sita, a woman broken by a series of terrible events In London, Alice grows into womanhood Trapped in a loveless marriage, she has a son Slowly she fulfils her grandfather's prophecy and becomes an artist Eventually she fi