Episode list

As a child Nessa Stein and her younger brother Ephra witnessed the murder in public of their father Eli, an Israeli arms dealer. Twenty-nine years later Nessa, her father's heiress, has turned the firm around, specializing in promoting communications between Israel and Palestine and establishing a charitable foundation for which she has been made a peeress in the English House of Lords. Nessa is about to deal with Palestinian businessman Samir Meshal, to the annoyance of family friend Shlomo, a deal which attracts the attention of Hugh Hayden-Hoyle, an MI6 operative on the verge of retirement, and Monica Chatwin, his rival and designated successor. Meshal kills himself, a death Nessa finds suspicious and she is reminded of a successful attempt to kidnap her in the Gaza Strip eight years before. Sadly there is another abduction in the present, when Kasim, the little son of Ephra's nanny Atika, is kidnapped . Nessa gives chase and the abductor draws a gun on her. He is killed by Nathaniel Bloom, Nessa's minder, but he too is shot and the abductor gets away with Kasim.

As Nathaniel lies in a hospital bed the wounded abductor in the next ward takes a phone call which results in his killing himself. Nessa is given a new bodyguard, with whom she has sex, but she deduces that he has been sent by Hayden-Hoyle to spy on her whilst Ephra cheats on pregnant wife Rachel with Atika. Police commander Garrett discovers that the kidnappers are ex-Intelligence Corps. Meanwhile Monica accuses MI6 boss Julia Walsh of exploiting Hayden-Hoyle to get rid of Nessa whilst Nessa herself, against the advice of P.A. Frances, distinguishes herself in the House of Lords with her speech on the Palestinian conflict. Hayden-Hoyle interviews Meshal's lover Rebecca Lantham to ascertain if he really killed himself and finds out that she is an FBI agent - which ultimately seals her fate. Nessa receives a mysterious message to tell her that Kasim is alive . Atika's response is to say " They know."

Nessa gets an enigmatic phone message - "Is your secret safe?" - prompting her to surmise that the abductors of Kasim are the people who kidnapped her and Atika in Gaza eight years earlier. Hugo latches onto the fact that Nessa went missing at the time when he discovers that Ephra was running the foundation on her behalf and passes on to Ephra his awareness of the fact. Ephra's wife Rachel, not blind to her husband's infidelity with Atika, forces a DNA test to prove that he is Kasim's father but the test proves negative whilst the recovering Nathaniel establishes that there was a conspiracy to force the injured abductor, Michel Getz, to kill himself and, against Nessa's advice but supported by Frances, conducts his own investigation - to his cost.

2006:- Anjelica Hayden-Hoyle berates her husband for his cowardly stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict whilst Ephra and Rachel celebrate their daughter's birth. Nessa travels to the West Bank to unveil the university funded by the family foundation, meeting her translator Atika. However the university principal queries why the money should be forthcoming, suggesting that it was sent to Gaza instead. Nessa cannot understand why and gets no joy from a call to Ephra so she and Atika set off for Gaza, where they are abducted by Al-Zahid for a ransom. Nessa rings Ephra and he asks Julia Walsh for help. She contacts Monica but there is no immediate ransom and Nessa and Atika are sexually assaulted, Atika killing her rapist.

Whilst in captivity Nessa is raped and gives birth though, to preserve the good name of the foundation, Atika claims that the child is hers. In England Ephra gives way to pressure from Shlomo to lay cables in Israel though Monica demands Ephra resign as the CEO of the foundation to secure his sister's release, which follows soon afterwards. Hayden-Hoyle continues to press Ephra about Nessa's abduction but gets no joy. In the present Nessa learns that the late Nathaniel was dealing with Monica behind her back with incriminating facts about Shlomo, regarding the use of the optic cables, which were apparently used in wire tapping, though Shlomo denies this. At the Israeli university of Kidma there are accusations that the Stein Foundation prefers to give grants to former Israeli soldiers rather than Arabs whilst in London Nessa is subject to surveillance.

After rough sex with the casual bar pick-up Tom Crace turns into a violent sexual assault, Hayden-Hoyle convinces Nessa she needs help and takes her home, revealing that he knows what happened to her in Gaza. He also relays the accusations of bias over the Kidma university admissions after the death of the whistle-blower. Nessa learns that Ephra secured her freedom from the kidnappers by agreeing to the wire-tapping, which leads to a sibling rift. She agrees to businessman Jalal El-Amin taking on the cabling work on condition he release Karim as she believes he was abducted to secure Jalal the contract. Hayden-Hoyle tells Ephra he knows about the terms of Nessa's release and he also learns that Samir Meshal said "She will agree" before he died, apparently killed by the Americans though Julia Walsh advises him against pursuing that line. At home Atika drops her bombshell on Rachel and Ephra.

Nessa's rapist Palestinian Al-Zahid arrives in London for a meeting with Monica Chatwin, intercepted by Hayden-Hoyle, who assumes Monica is working with the Palestinians and also tells Nessa he knows why Kasim was taken. Nessa goes to Hebron on the West Bank to unveil the cable system but Frances is angry with her for signing over its rights to El-Amin, unaware of her reasons. There is an assassination attempt, which Nessa survives and about which El-Amin does not seem wholly innocent but she is missing though the news reports claim she is dead. Atika lures Ephra to his death. Ephra is killed by Al-Zahid, who is then killed by Ephra's wife. Israeli extremist group the League of Samaria claim to have killed both Steins but their leader Yaniv Levi is also found dead. Suspicious of Monica Chatwin's true allegiance Hayden-Hoyle plays a tape regarding American involvement in Israel, noting a comment made about the Secretary of State - "She has agreed."

Believing that Nessa was killed by an Israeli-backed terrorist group the American government prepares to accept Palestine as a sovereign state and Julia Walsh accuses Palestinian sympathizer Monica of helping to engineer this, using Nessa as a pawn. Nessa comes to in a house with Kasim and rings Shlomo to announce that she is alive. Acting on the call Hayden-Hoyle persuades Atika, who was aware of, and part of, the plot that she owes it to Nessa to rescue her, which she does, killing the father of Al-Zahid, who ordered her rape and her family's murders. Though mortally wounded Atika helps Nessa and Kasim escape to Israel and back to England, where they visit Rachel and her new-born baby.