After an acrimonious break from her husband, independent radio producer and hapless amateur sleuth Veronica Pilchard takes digs with a theatrical landlady living off Wild Fern Alley behind the University in Belfast. Despite this shambles and her hatred for the BBC Head of Programmes, she still produces award winning programmes with the Barry Doyle Show. When a young Italian mysteriously goes missing, it is she who discovers him imprisoned in a filthy basement in the temporarily uninhabited house beside her lodgings. Why was he abducted? Why are the local landlords sabotaging the development of Wild Fern Alley? How will she help the local group win a political battle? With the help of her friend Lady Beightin, her sometime lover DI Jack Summers, and the Belfast gay community, Veronica Pilchard uncovers a major art fraud and helps the police solve a murder case.