'Please come, Claire. Oh Claire, I'm in such dreadful terrible trouble I don't know what to do - Claire, you just have to come, please - I don't know what to do -' 'Gina listen! Where are you, for God's sake? What's happened? What - Gina - are you there? Gina -' But there was nothing there any more, just that long empty silence, and then across a distance of three thousand miles I heard the soft stealthy click of the receiver being replaced.' From half way round the world American Clare Sullivan obeys a desperate summons from her glamorous sister Gina and flies to Paris. But when she arrives, there is no sign of Gina. Her sister's trail leads Claire to London and to Garth Cooper - a boyfriend of Gina's - who seems to have a secret to hide. Claire still hopes that the phone call and the disappearance act are just another of her sister's melodramatic stunts, but as time passes she can't help feeling something much more sinister is going on.