"In 1916, at the height of the war, an explosion and fire at an armament factory in Kent killed more than a hundred men. With Ashton Powder Mill situated so close to the coast - within reach of German saboteurs - the Army investigated, eventually ruling the event an appalling tragedy. Now, two years later, suspicion, gossip, and, and rumor have raised the specter of murder - and fingers point to the owner, Philip Ashton, whose son is battlefield nurse Bess Crawford's friend and former patient. In France, Bess searches for the only known witness to the explosion, now serving at the Front, and tries to convince him to give evidence about that terrible Sunday morning...Time is running out and Bess, at the point of a gun, has only one choice left : to risk her life to save the Ashtons." -- From the publisher.