Skrimshaw is the saloon passenger on board the Lochwinnoch, bound for Australia. He is relieved as the ship sets sail from England, because for the next three months at least, he is safe from the gallows. He has just committed a brutal murder and is fleeing justice. But within a month, news of the fugitive passenger is signalled to the captain of the ship.
Skrimshaw has to find a way to escape before the police are called aboard the ship at Melbourne. He has two whole months to think of an ingenious and very cunning plan....