In Victorian London, we meet Tom Callow, a young man with a puffed-up sense of entitlement. He believes that an inheritance should be his but instead it goes to Blythe Armstrong, a teenage girl living in far off colonial Sydney. Blythe is invited to England to finalise details of her estate. Tom decides to put things right by travelling incognito to Australia and returning on the same ship as Blythe.
Once at sea he plans to do away with the heiress then back in London he'll lay claim to his rightful inheritance.
It's a simple plan which sometimes goes wrong, but it's a long trip home, by sea and overland, giving Tom the opportunity to try again — and again.
This is a tale based on historical events of the time — how people travelled between Britain and the Far East in pre-Suez Canal days.
It is also a crime novel, with a touch of comedy.