Events that take place in an obscure oil-surveyor's camp in the French West Indies act as the link and the catalyst for three desperate groups of people thousands of miles apart - in London, New York and the picturesque old quarter of New Orleans.

Upon often trivial acts depends matters of life and love and death, and as always Alec Waugh has distilled the drama and the truth from a wide spectrum of characters and situations. The fascination of this novel is that it is, in effect, a game of global consequences.