If Ruth had stayed on leave, none of it might have happened. An astronomer working at the Maurice Frazer Observatory, Ruth Russell is enjoying her time in Rome.

That is until Charles Digham, top fashion photographer and Ruth's lover, has his camera stolen and the thief ends up a headless corpse in the zoo park toletta. The enigmatic Johnson Johnson, in Rome to paint a portrait of the Pope, is on hand to unravel the mystery.

But as Johnson and Ruth begin the search for clues it soon becomes clear that more is at stake than the secrets of a couture house... something far more deadly.