Phryne Fisher has plans for her Sydney sojourn - a few days at the Test cricket, dinner with the Vice Chancellor at Sydney University, a little sightseeing and the Artist's Ball with an up and coming young modernist. But these plans begin to go awry when Dot Williams, Phryne's faithful maid, discovers her thoroughly respectable sister, Joan, has left her family for the murky nightlife of The Cross. And then postponed again because Phryne is definitely not the woman to say "no" when two delightful young men are on their knees, begging for her help in finding their friend innocent of theft.
It all sounds simple enough when Phryne sets investigations into motion. But when greed and fear are the motivating factors, people become ruthless and Phryne quickly finds herself enmeshed in blackmail, secrets, lies and the dangerous influences of deep black magic.
