When Sergeant Frank Hardy's father, James Hardy, arrives from England, he's accompanied by a woman he met on the voyage. In forced quarantine on Somes Island in Wellington Harbour, Frank is visited by a man claiming to be a detective from the Chinatown Squad in San Francisco, who warns Frank that his father is in deep trouble. The woman has enemies, and they are on the way to New Zealand to find her and kill her. If James Hardy gets in their way, he's a dead man.

Frank pursues the couple across the North Island by hansom cab, train, buggy and horse car; can he get to Napier and rescue his father before it's too late? Who is the mysterious man who keeps showing up? Is the detective whom he claims he is? Does James Hardy have a secret of his own? Find out in this gripping seventh book in The Frank Hardy Mysteries series.