An international fugitive is faced with a vexing choice

Lem Stanhope-Swift, the sixth Viscount Bessacarr, has been living in Venezuela, keeping his distance from the British authorities ever since an embezzlement charge landed him in a spot of bother back home. Over the years he's been enjoying the tropical weather and an abundance of liquor and women. But he's just learned that he has cancer, and desperately wants to see the daughter he long ago abandoned.

Landing on his home country's soil under a false identity, he's disappointed to discover that the secret service is there to greet him. They have a proposition: They'll arrange the visit, as long as he first agrees to an assignment to kill another wanted man on the run — the fifth viscount, Lem's own father...