Told in dual flashbacks, this novel relates the stories of both Trevor Roberts, a British journalist-in-training, and Henry Friston, a World War I Royal Navy sailor. Assigned in the 1950s to cover the annual hibernation awakening of Ali Pasha, a giant tortoise and local celebrity owned by Henry, Trevor meets and connects with Henry who then shares his wartime photos, memorabilia, and diary as well as reminiscences of harrowing battles with Turkish soldiers in Gallipoli, and his fateful meeting with Ali Pasha, an encounter that gave Henry the strength to survive and marked the beginning of a lifelong friendship.