A new case to challenge the skills of Sydney, Australia, detective Scobie Malone. When a housemaid is found dead in her millionaire employer's penthouse, Malone suspects a kidnapping attempt gone wrong. But things aren't that simple.
Eve Tozer hires Patrick O'Malley, a washed-up aviator, and races against a deadline in a desperate attempt to meet the ransom demands of the men who have kidnapped her industrialist father in China.
Two women are murdered at the Hotel Southern Savoy. And an old girlfriend is intent on rewriting history and turning a long ago affair into something that could threaten Detective Scobie Malone's marriage.