Highly acclaimed novelist John Mortimer presents a novel of friends and enemies-for Philip Progmire, those two roles just happen to be filled by the same person.

Dick Dunster and Philip Progmire have been friends since their days at school. They have also been adversaries. Progmire's thespian longings, nurtured since he was a university actor, are now submerged in his work as an accountant with Megapolis Television. Dunster is also at Megapolis, engaged on an expose of war criminals, focusing on a blown-up church and the massacre of the whole population of a small town during the Italian campaign.

As Dunster researches his subject, the scene darkens, and Progmire tries to protect the victim of his old school friend's merciless inquisition. Long after the cessation of hostilities, Dunster and Progmire are at war.