A novel based loosely on the life of the Turkish-born 17th-century Jew, Shabbatai Zevi. Hailed as the Messiah, forced to convert to Islam, five times married, he is an eccentric and exotic character. In 1970 the author won the Booker Prize for her fourth novel, The Elected Member.

It is 1947, and in the British Mandate of Palestine the political pressure is rising. Jewish immigrants are arriving from Europe in their thousands, smuggled ashore past the armed patrols. The Wertman family, like the Jewish community, is divided: Avram is a member of the Irgun, a terrorist group fighting to end occuption; his daughter Hannah works for the Haganah, peacefully campaigning for a Jewish state. David Millar and Will Griffiths are two English sergeants, reluctant conscripts, who transfer to Intelligence. Half-Catholic, half-Jewish, David has mixed feelings about his work, more so when he becomes close to Hannah. Will, meanwhile, is finding trouble at the Jerusalem jazz bar where he plays his saxophone...