The partners of 'Crabbe and Crabbe: Private Investigators' have unusual qualifications for detectives. Both in their twenties, Melpomene is a social anthropologist, and Alexander is a solicitor, a combination that brings fresh approaches to a sometimes jaded profession, benefitting from collaboration with police colleagues in London. This, their latest case, begins innocuously enough when a young friend is concerned that Janice, her fourteen-year old school friend, is the target of idle gossip accusing her diplomat father of misconduct, and she asks Melpomene and Alex to help. In investigating further, it soon becomes apparent that there are indeed serious undercurrents going on behind the work of the London embassy of a small Caribbean state, involving murder and kidnapping. Of course, Crabbe and Crabbe uncover the culprits and bring them to justice.