David Burnsall, a small-time military publisher, is on holiday in Greece with his wife Sue when he learns that his father in law has killed himself. As the head of an Oxford College, Sir Henry Pewsey's death sparks off unpleasant rumours about a hidden scandal from his past. When Sue leaves him for a good-looking historian with a prurient interest in Pewsey's papers, it's left to David to try and save his father-in-law's reputation. In investigating his life though - in particular his war-time collaboration with the Greek resistance, he is caught up in a violent race which ends, dramatically and unexpectedly, on an island in the Ionian Sea.