Living in the idyllic English countryside in 1976, Sally is haunted by her experiences during the Second World War. She also suspects someone is trying to kill her. With mounting fear, Sally confides with her daughter Ruth; a woman struggling with her own past. Sally drops a bombshell. She is actually Eva Delectorskaya, a Russian émigré recruited as a spy by the British prior to the Second World War. For the past thirty years, Eva has led a second life hiding from the ghosts of her past.
Eva reveals her secret to her daughter through a series of written chapters for a planned book. As Ruth delves into her mother's writing, she learns the shocking truth. Eva was recruited in Paris prior to the Second World War, following the death of her brother Kolia; also a British spy. Taught by an enigmatic spymaster named Lucas Romer, Eva learned the art of espionage and was made part of a unit specializing in media manipulation. Above all, she was taught 'Rule Number One' of spying: trust no one - a rule broken when she and Romer began a dangerous love affair. The affair had tragic consequences.
In 1941, Eva and Romer were assigned to the United States. They were given the task of manipulating the American media into motivating the public to support entry into the war on the Allied side. While in New York, Eva's affair with Romer set in motion events that culminated in her betrayal and her flight from the British Secret Services. She found eventual refuge in a new life as Sally Gilmartin.
Thirty years later, Eva's identity unravels with her confession to her daughter. Ruth struggles with the truth, and her own recent past fills her with self-doubt and insecurity. A failed relationship in Germany resulted in a son and an eventual return to England. Her mother's confession leads Ruth to the realization that her mother is entangling her in one final mission - a showdown with Eva's past betrayer.
Restless twists and turns through the double life of one remarkable woman. Through Eva's life, William Boyd asks the intriguing question - How well do we truly know someone?
