When Lady Enid – an aristocrat in need of a project and a husband – throws her lot in with dashing Bernard Finch, she thinks she’s found her perfect life’s companion. Handsome and clever, Bernard has come a long way from his small-town American roots.
Now he is a man transformed, more English than the English, the doyen of culture vultures and a celebrated lecturer on Aegean cruises. Which is where his past comes back to bite him, in the shape of his old college chum, Frankie Gleeson. It’s amazing how much can happen on a cruise ship between Istanbul and Venice.