On the surface Grittleton Towers is a quiet English country house in the 1920s -- a privileged world of the upper classes and their servants. Every house guest has a shady past, so when a valuable painting is stolen there are suspects galore. Jamie Fordyce tries to save the situation but causes complications worthy of a P.G. Wodehouse plot. The police become involved. Reputations are in danger. Jamie's valet, Smythe, a fixer par excellence, discovers that nothing at Grittleton Towers is what it appears to be.