A MINE CALLED WAGNER, A MAID CALLED MINERVA

Autumn 1917: the Great War drags on inconclusively, inflation is rampant. Raymond Jessop, manager of the Dyffryn Cellwen steelworks, is seeking business partners with whom he can one day relocate to a country where the costs of raw materials and production are lower: neutral Spain. Specifically the Bierzo, where the Basque economist Julio de Lazúrtegui has devoted decades to fomenting international interest in Coto Wagner, Europe's richest seam of iron ore. Pablo Gutiérrez, second officer of Dyffryn Cellwen's ore carrier 'Afon Dulais', torpedoed off the Gower coast, is Raymond's choice to track down the elusive Lazúrtegui and negotiate business terms. Pablo´s travels enmesh him in the underworld of unscrupulous German and British commercial and political interests, and introduce him to the delectable and mischievous Minerva, an Asturian farmer´s daughter, who helps him to find life and love beyond an arranged marriage which has ended up on the rocks.