Jim Taylor, consulting detective, gambler, bodyguard, writer and friend of Sally Lockhart, has been looking for Adelaide Bevan for a long time. He last saw her as a poor penniless waif disappearing into the smoky mists of London (at the end of The Ruby in the Smoke). So imagine his surprise when he does find her at last - a beautiful young woman and in the company of no less a personage than Prince Rudolf of Eschtenburg, heir to the throne of Razkavia.