Free-wheeling London detective Todd "Ratso" Holtom is on the front-line against a ruthless international gang that imports drugs into the UK and Europe. His nephew has died from drug abuse and Ratso is obsessed with bringing down the king-pin who seems immune from arrest. The trail leads to the USA and the Bahamas where he is helped by Kirsty-Ann Webber, a svelte Florida detective. Mayfair club-land and the Mediterranean feature as Operation Clam races to a climax in a series of dramatic confrontations.

Inspired by the facts of true crime and set against the background of the war in Afghanistan from where the drugs are coming, Ratso enters a political minefield involving Scotland Yard and the Ministry of Defence in London and the Pentagon and State Department in Washington, D.C.