"Oh, something is bound to go wrong, but one might as well start out from a position of optimism, don't you think?" said Angela. It's fair to say that Freddy Pilkington-Soames is not having a good day. His grandmother is threatening to marry a lounge lizard, his old friend has lost her lover, a racehorse has been kidnapped, a priceless diamond has gone missing, and everybody seems to think he should sort it all out. (Oh, and there's a dead body on the terrace.) Now Freddy's on the sunny French Riviera, caught in the crossfire of a feud between an audacious thief he's locked horns with before and a murderous gang, who will stop at nothing to get what they want. He'd keep his head down if he could, but there are questions that need answering. Who took the diamond? Who is double-crossing whom? And is his grandmother's intended quite all he seems? (And where did that dead body go?) A political scandal at the highest level is looming and the future of an international conference hangs in the balance, and once again it's up to Freddy to save the day - in more ways than one.