When police are called to a house in Chelsea following a complaint of a noisy party, all seems to be quiet - but a short while later, flames are seen coming from the house In the main bedroom, the fire brigade find the body of Mrs Diana Barton, who has been stabbed to death.

DCI Harry Brock and DS Dave Poole discover that, far from being the reserved housewife she seemed, Diana was a fun-loving woman who made certain that the party developed into something closer to an orgy.

But Diana Barton's murder is not the only killing, and soon the complex enquiry stretches as far as Australia . . .