Rome, December 1944. The city has been liberated by the Allies, but no one feels like celebrating. A bitter wind blows down Via Flaminia, where Signora Adela Pulcini keeps her boarding house and discreetly finds Italian girls for lonely America soldiers. Robert is one such soldier; Lisa is the girl procured to keep him company in return for food and shelter. But the simple exchange doesn't go to plan, as Robert and Lisa find themselves tangled in a dark, mutually destructive affair. Exposing the fault-lines between men and women, the old and new worlds, and victor and vanquished, Hayes's spare, taut novel is an incisive portrayal of sexual economics and the dark side of love.