Patrick Stubbs, fledgeling diplomat, is posted to the British embassy in Lower Africa where one of his responsibilities is to help find the consul, Arthur Whelk, who has disappeared Other responsibilities include Whelk's enormous house, his maid Sarah, his gardener, Deuteronomy, and a formidable guard dog Patrick soon finds that he has also inherited the attentions of local police chief, Jim Rissik, whose job it is to watch over difficult 'dips'