Lovely Celia Kent had looked forward to a quiet vacation at Madame Oliver's hotel on the French Riviera and was disappointed to find Madame no longer in charge and the hotel itself inhabited by a group of very strange guests. Most disturbing was a stockbroker, whose strange entourage included a very temperamental tortoise. The disappearance of this odd pet on a deserted quay provided the perfect setting for sinister things to come - including violent and cold-blooded murder.