A letter from Meudon offering a Rodin sculpture of Gwen John seems like a real coup for White's Bank's Art Fund but actually marks the start of Tim Simpson's problems. Summoned to the Dordogne, required to fend off Parisian thugs, oblige a comely French girl whilst worried about the engagement of his girl friend Sue to another man, research an industrial investment in Wales, fight a murderer, outwit a fraudster and still locate the Rodin are all consequences of a promising start at the site of the last battle of the Hundred Years' War.