A full length suspense novel built around the famous Simon Templar, who-stensibly in retirement- finds himself involved in a Mafia operation in Sicily. He overhears an accidental meeting between an innocuous Englishman and a man he identifies by a name obviously repugnant- and frightening- to its presumed owner. Twenty four hours later, the Englishman is dead. The Saint, walking the tightrope of bravado and determination to pursue the right, pits his wits and know-how against the hierachy of the Mafia and wins.