Assigned to cover yet another ethnic conflict, T.K. Farrow, a jaded newspaperman, finds himself competing for scoops against Cassandra Benoit, a fresh-faced Canadian schoolteacher-turned-amateur reporter who strings for public radio. Even as she challenges everything he and his hard-bitten colleagues take for granted, T.K. finds himself drawn to Cass, who is intent as much on saving humanity as on reporting the news. As Equatoria explodes into full-fledged civil war, T.K. and Cass's rocky affair is interrupted by a boozy Washington pundit, a TV anchorman with a face that launched a thousand focus groups, and a sinister guerrilla leader known as the Doctor. When the final battle sends laptop computers, television cameras, and satellite up-links crashing into darkness, T.K. must make a decision as professionally and personally daunting as any he has faced: should he rescue Cass or hang in to cover the best story of his career?