Lucy Waring, a twenty-something actress steps off the London stage and onto the idyllic Ionian island of Corfu. In a the course of a morning swim, paradise transforms to a place of sinister doings: someone shoots at a tamed dolphin, a young Greek  drowns off the coast of Albania, and a smuggler washes up dead in a nearby cove. Stewart uses all her formidable skill, crafting a strong story that is both literary and fast moving. Told from Lucy's point-of-view, the reader's is kept as taut as a wire as the tension mounts not only while Lucy attempts to determine the identity of the wrongdoer and the reason for his misdemeanors but as she inadvertently puts herself in harm's way.

Mary Grey accepts a 'job', posing as Annabel Winslow, the long-lost cousin and heiress to Whitescar, a lucrative North England working farm---her employer, her 'cousin' Con has much to gain once Annabel's cantankerous old grandfather passes on. At first, after careful schooling by Con and his half-sister, Lisa, Mary takes to her new position smoothly, easily edging her way into life on the farm with a barrage of lies that seem to be second nature to her. No one doubts her identity until she discovers the presence of an unknown lover that may blow her cover. The real reason Annabel Winslow left Whitescar eight years earlier hits the reader with tour de force revelation which Stewart masterfully manipulates.

Gianetta Brook has had a rough go of it. Lovely, red-haired and seemingly a London jet-setter, she is actually a vulnerable young woman with a sterling set of ethics and lingering loyalties. Her romantic history, however, is disappointing. As a younger model, awash with the glow of new-found fame, she meets writer Nicholas Drury, 10 years her senior.

Sardonic and handsome, he sweeps her away in a whirlwind courtship that ends in a swift marriage doomed to fail as she believes he only sees her slick model's veneer and not the innocent girl beneath. Four years later, Gianetta finds herself divorced, still modeling and utterly exhausted by her seemingly sophisticated life. A vacation to the isle of Skye in the Hebrides is recommended by her well-meaning parents. Especially as she wants to avoid the coronation throngs crowding London in May of 1953, Gianetta quickly accepts their advice.

Within days she finds herself at the small Camas Fhionnaridh Hotel at the foot of  the Cuillin where fishing and climbing is the order of the day and the fast pace of London is left far behind her. Or so she thinks. Instead of peace and quiet, she is first assaulted by the advent of her ex-husband, then by the fact that all of the company staying in the hotel are actually suspected of being a killer. In the staple of a classic Agatha Christie drawing room police procedural, Gianetta's values are put to the test as the local police enlist her aid in creating their dragnet and the clues begin to point unerringly towards identifying Nicholas as the unknown murderer.