When Samuel Cheever, a shady dealer, goes to France to buy antiques and never returns, people in his home-town of Francaster begin to ask questions.

Superintendent Littlejohn travels to France to uncover the mystery. Cheever’s bones are discovered in the Camargue, the wilderness around the Rhône delta, and Littlejohn again finds himself, with Sergeant Cromwell at his side, in the company of the French police. They work amicably together, as usual, but Cheever’s trail leads to many strange places, meeting a variety of colourful characters on the way before the case is solved.

The charming people, the sunshine, the wine and the food of the sweet land of France are all here and, of course, there is Cromwell, too, enthusiastic and modest as ever, trying out his French for the first time and meeting with mixed results.