In the sequel to the acclaimed novel Does It Hurt to Die, Christian de Villiers sets out on another adventure into Africa, this time equipped with a medical degree and rudimentary surgical skills. He hopes to retrace the footsteps of his murdered father, who had previously worked in Rwanda and the Congo. He also has the hope that he will again meet the first love of his life, Isabella, and she will reignite the sexual chemistry which has significantly absent from his life after their separation. Arriving at a small hospital on the Congolese border, he is rapidly caught up in the violence between warlords all vying for the precious resources in the Congo. Christian finds himself not only dealing with the bloody aftermath in the hospital, but increasingly drawn into the lives of people affected by the daily violence. In the little hospital at Garanyi he finds people struggling to deal with poverty, some of whom are forced to sell their children into slave labour to one of two brutal warlords, Kariba Offengowe or Bosco the Brutal. After a violent clash between the two warlords Christian finds and treats, a young boy named Michelangelo. As Michelangelo recovers from his wounds Christian finds discovers that he was sold by a Chinese run orphanage to one of the warlords. Michelangelo reveals he overheard plans that the Chinese government intends using the orphanage as a front, to take over control of the precious mineral resources in the Congo. Isabella arrives having completed a tropical disease course in London. She immediately is involved in helping Christian deal with victims of another violent clash. One of the boys seriously wounded is the son of warlord Kariba Offengowe. Kariba kidnaps Isabella to ensure that his son survives. The death of Kariba's son puts Isabella's life in danger; Christian asks Mike and Galela in the South African National Intelligence Agency, to come and help with Isabella's rescue. In planning the rescue of Isabella, a plot is uncovered by Kariba to use the nerve gas Tabun, supplied by a Syrian paedophile Raoul Assad. The delivery of the gas, and the equipment to deliver it, from Syria, forces the premature rescue attempt of Isabella. In the rescue, Christian is badly wounded; he is saved by the presence of an experienced surgeon who turns out to be more than an angel of mercy. Isabella nurses Chris- tian back to health and assists with Christian's medical evacuation to Cape Town, where there is another final twist in their lives waiting.