London 1721. William Spandrel, deeply in debt, is offered a discharge of his major liability by his principal creditor, Sir Theodore Janssen, a director of the recently collapsed South Sea Company. In return he must secretly convey a package to de Vries, a friend of Janssen's, in Amsterdam.
The package delivered, Spandrel narrowly escapes an attempt on his life, only to be accused of the murder of de Vries himself. Then de Vries's secretary, his English wife and the package itself go missing. Spandrel realises that he has become a pawn in a game involving many parties.
Among others, British Government agents are on his trail, believing that the package contained secret details of the great South Sea financial scandal - secrets so explosive that they could spark revolution in England. Spandrel's only chance of survival is to find the package and place its contents in the right hands. But whose are the right hands and what exactly are the contents?
