Athens, 1913, is the capital of a country on the brink of war. The new prime minister, Venizelos, is tired of the Ottoman overlords, and has what he calls the Great Idea — a vision of a new Greece which unites all the Greek people scattered around the Mediterranean.

But this is not such a great idea, in view of other countries, like Britain, which believes in letting sleeping dogs lie. And cats. This includes the one recently poisoned in Salonica and belonged to the exiled former Sultan. Unfortunately, as is the way with the Balkans, rumors start flying around; one being that this was a sighting shot for the ex-Sultan himself. This, in the Balkans, could start a war, so Britain has to sit up and take notice.

Something has to be done fast. And, the diplomats have to be urged to be low-key. The lowest key of all is to send out a police officer from Scotland Yard to investigate, and, as it happens, the Foreign Office has a person in mind: Seymour, of the CID, who has had some experience of this sort of thing before.