Campion returns to Pontisbright in disguise in order to track down Savanke.

When the safety of the ancient Gyrth Chalice is threatened, Campion embarks on a dangerous assignment to protect it. He soon discovers that his adversary will stop at nothing - even murder - in order to get the Chalice.

Campion receives a letter from an old Cambridge friend, asking him to help find a missing uncle of his fiancée. Campion is convinced that the murderer is part of the Faraday household.

Campion is convinced that a third murder is imminent. The inquest into the death of Claire Potter reveals that she died from nicotine poisoning.

Campion searches for the crown of a lost kingdom. Campion is asked to find documents that will prove that the Frittons are the rightful owners of a tiny Dalmatian state where oil has been discovered.

Influenced by his feelings for Linda Sutane, Campion refuses to believe the evidence against her husband Jimmy, and continues trying to clear his name. But when another murder occurs, Sutane's innocence becomes impossible to sustain.

Campion is determined to prove the innocence of his friend Mike Barnabas, arrested for the murder of Paul Brande, but in trying to do so he puts his own life in jeopardy.

Judge Lobbett mysteriously disappears, Biddy Pagett is kidnapped and Lugg tries to warn Campion off the Simister mob investigation, but he refuses to give in.