Mrs Edythe Westmore has more money than sense - a lot more. So when one of the Palm Beach's dodgier financial advisors suggests that she sinks her nest egg in a Faberge egg, her friends smell a rat - and Archy McNally is soon on the case . . .
Archy expects the investigation to turn into the Case of the Rotten Egg - but uncovers more than one. There is Frederick Clemens, the man who's selling the egg: a smooth and plausible citizen, though one with a mysterious past and an unusual assistant. There's Sydney Smyth, an impoverished antique dealer with a strange reluctance to advise Archy. There's Mrs Westmore's family, consisting of a sex-mad daughter, an anthropology-mad son and a money-mad daughter-in-law.
Archy knows a crime is about to be hatched but he can't figure out how. Then he devises a devilishly clever plan to encourage Clemens to act rashly - and unwittingly sets off a lethal chain reaction.
