Stone Barrington and his former cop partner Dino are enjoying their drinks at Elaine's when former client and all-around sad sack Herbie Fisher walks in...in need of a lawyer. But while Stone is trying to fend off Herbie, a more welcome potential employer appears: a beautiful woman looking for somebody who somebody else wants dead.

She takes Stone into the posh world of embassy soirees and titled privilege, where high society meets government intrigue. And when trouble follows him from his Manhattan townhouse to his tranquil summer home in Maine, Stone has to decide what to do with the explosive information he's uncovered.