The Mediterranean, 1915. Lieutenant Commander Tom Sheldon watches six hundred men drown when a German U-boat sinks his battleship. He should be dead. Instead, he washes ashore in the Libyan Desert and collapses at the gate of an ancient monastery. The woman who finds him is not what he expects. Sister Helena is young, sharp-tongued, and hiding secrets behind her grey habit. She has sworn to forget the world—and to make the world forget her. But Tom Sheldon does not forget. From the beaches of Egypt to the trenches of Flanders to the leper colonies of Calcutta, THE SAND AND THE CLOTH is a sweeping WWI romance about survival, sacrifice, and the kind of love that takes years to find—and a lifetime to keep. "Still afloat?" "Still afloat. Still here. Still together."