Stephen Sharkey and Ben Frobisher, journalist and photographer respectively, are regularly faced with the reality of war After Ben dies on assignment in Afghanistan, Stephen embarks on a book about the images of war - a book that will be based largely on Ben's work But the demands of the present - recurring nightmares of his time in Sarajevo, an affair with a woman twenty years his junior, and a sudden emergency in the shape of masked intruders - are turning Stephen's life into a war zone and threatening his peace of mind