Pip hasn't worked in a decade when her new agent calls unexpectedly. A movie role is on offer, and Magda Quest Saxer wants an answer in less than a week. She gives Pip an implied ultimatum. Take it and fly to Sydney for a screen test. Turn it down it and never work again. With no one else to advise her, Pip consults the cats. Kittisack and Amberjill are probably real. Lupin's cat is made of pottery. All of them think she ought to take the role.

This disruption is bad enough, but Cousin Lupin's legacy is confusing. Pip risks a call to ask what it's all about, and within the hour she's off on a magical mystery tour on a yacht crewed by people she doesn't know.

It's bewildering stuff, especially when one of the crew goes missing and the other two don't seem to care. Pip cares but dialling triple zero has its complications when someone nearby can make the phone jump right out of her hand.