The story finds university historian Vicki Bliss and her colleague, Tony, trying to track down a lost piece of German art, the last work of a master wood carver who died in the 16th century. Most of the story takes place in a medieval castle in a small German town, complete with a mysterious late-night spectre, secret passageways, and a bloody history reaching clear back to the time when the missing carving was created.

One perfect red rose, a one-way ticket to Stockholm, and a cryptic "message" consisting of two Latin words intrigue art historian Vicky Bliss -- as they were precisely intended to do. Beautiful, brilliant and, as always, dangerously inquisitive, Vicky recognizes the handiwork of her former lover, the daring jewel thief John Smythe. So she takes the bait, eagerly following Smythe's lead in the hope of finding a lost treasure. But the trail begins with...

On learning of a plot to rob the treasure-filled Cairo museum, Vicky Bliss, the assistant curator of the Munich National Museum, joins a Nile cruise. The object of the trip is to prevent the burglary by identifying the burglar: the wily Sir John, a master of disguise, who has been her most dangerous antagonist and her occasional lover. By the author of The Last Camel Died at Noon.