A gripping lesson in geopolitic and a shattering tribute, both to those who were able to flee and those to had to stay behind.

Sunday, August 15, 2021. Kabul, the capital of ’Afghanistan, falls into Taliban hands almost twenty years after the Americans drove them out. After evacuating their staff by helicopter, all the Western embassies shut down except France's. David Martinon, the French ambassador in Kabul, is in charge, but how to help the greatest number of people? Whom to ask for help? More importantly, whom not to? In this ripped-from-the-headlines story–a thriller without an ounce of fiction–David Martinon revisits not only the debacle of Kabul, but also the conditions that allowed it to happen, and the terrible signs that heralded it, which no one wanted to see.