A story in two parts and two places. In 2005 in Avignon, a man has died; at his house his body lies in state attended by a soprano and by his daughter Ana, who is in the process of leaving her husband. His adopted son Uli, an Israeli police officer, arrives for the funeral. With Uli, Ana is playful, even foolish, and she attempts to forge a new will of her father's. The family attorney brushes aside Ana's forgery and produces a true will that upsets Ana and sends her, with Uli, to Israel where she must visit a settlement scheduled for destruction in the Gaza disengagement. What are the wellsprings of emotion, and what of an embrace?

Palestine, 1917. The British advance has been stopped by the Turkish line running from Gaza to Beersheba. The latest attack on Gaza has failed. The attacking forces included a regiment of Australian mounted infantry, the Light Horse... Lighthorseman Frank is wounded in a skirmish with Bedouin. He is replaced by a young soldier, Dave, who proves to be a crack shot, but reluctant to fire at the enemy. Dave proves himself during a German biplane attack. Recuperating in hospital, he meets a sympathetic nurse, Anne... The regiment is called upon for a bold flanking attack on Beersheba. But how do you convince the Turks the main attack will come at Gaza? And how do you attack across a desert without water?