Happily married to Maxime and living in the South of France, Katharine's life seems perfect until the birth of her fourth child. Struggling to come out of a deep post-natal depression, the security of her world collapses when Maxime's first wife unexpectedly reappears. Shattered, threatened, and pre-occupied by her baby, Katharine feels she can no longer cope, though Maxime, against all odds, fights to keep their marriage together. Katharine's trauma overwhelms her when she hears that her father has mysteriously disappeared. Will she see him again? Can her marriage survive? Before the Dawn is a fast-moving, dramatic and passionate book set in France, Scotland and North Africa, in which the drama of Katharine and Maxime's marriage unfolds . . .