It's 1919, WWI has just ended, and Harry Selfridge is struggling with loss. After the death of his beloved Rose, he is making costly business mistakes. His empire is weakened, and he is vulnerable to his old enemy Lord Loxley.

In this extraordinary story, which will bend the mind as well as the senses, Inspector Borluof the Extreme Crime Squad investigates the murder of a student whose body is found on the rundown streets of Besźel. Cases like this are run of the mill for Borlu until he discovers evidence that the victim had been visiting Besźel's prosperous neighboring city, Ul Qoma. This shouldn't be possible as citizens of each city are forbidden from seeing or interacting...

It's World War II and Charlotte has been trained to be an undercover courier for England. She straps on a parachute and falls from the sky into Vichy, France. There she will assist the French Resistance in its defiance of Nazi occupation. Once behind enemy lines, she keeps secret her personal mission to find her lover, an RAF pilot downed over France.