Synopsis

Piers Urquhart is caught up unwittingly in a large scale scam, trying to help his friend fulfil his obligations to his Swiss boss, which involves releasing United Nations funds in the United States for the purchase of baby food, tractors and diesel fuel, to benefit third world countries. Instead of being able to help with such aid, Piers is wrongly imprisoned on the island of Llan. He manages to escape with the help of a beautiful girl from Berlin, who, believing in Piers's innocence, enlists the help of a fellow countryman and former lover, who is now a leading secret service agent based in Bonn, and who is assigned officially by his government to help unravel the fraud.

There follows a thrilling chase across Northern Europe to Switzerland, then New York state, The Everglades, and finally the Pyramids in Guatemala, where an unusual fate awaits the principal fraudster. The tale is one of intrigue, police corruption and a total collapse of everything familiar in Piers's life, culminating in an unexpected and dramatic ending.