It's 1951 and the servants of Stalin are closing in on the occupied nations of eastern Europe. As the Red Army tightens the net, Greta - best and bravest of freedom fighters - is told to escape to the West and undertake a dangerous mission.

Greta's task is to find a missing girl: the precious daughter of a partisan general who was sent into exile in the final days of the war.

But the so-called Free World is no place for vulnerable young refugees. Europe is in ruins, the old Empires are dying, and a spectacular cast of spivs, gangsters and rival intelligence agencies are fighting over the scraps.

Crossing the Iron Curtain will require nerves of steel as Greta faces down the French mob, ex-Nazis, Soviet spies, all the glamour and temptation of Paris and ultimately, her own demons.

The Exile is the stunning prequel to The Partisan, Patrick Worrall's critically-acclaimed debut, which introduced the world to the force of nature that is Greta.

This is her white-knuckle ride into the black heart of postwar Europe - a terrifying world in which allies and enemies are impossible to tell apart.