Perdita Tree, the bored and beautiful wife of Tory MP Nicholas Hodgekin, believes that all married women, and perhaps all women everywhere, should have a magic door through which they can walk into a different life - ‘utterly, utterly different, not necessarily better, just something other’. So when she is kidnapped in Albania, she takes it in the spirit of one huge adventure. Adored by her kidnapper, who believes all things English are perfect, she is persuaded to rescue the Albanians from their dire history, and is vain enough to imagine that she can. Together they ride across the country on horseback, singing Beatles songs and preaching freedom. The year is 1991, democracy is coming, but are the Albanians ready for it? And are they ready for Perdita? With this beguilingly simple novel, Olivia Fane considers the nature of love, longing and betrayal and, above all, the art of being free.