Charles Goodgame is a portrait painter who's in love with his stepsister Polly Capstan. She works for the Duke of Burfaughtonleigh at his crumbling stately home in Gloucestershire. Polly invites Charles to paint a portrait of the Duke, but when he arrives, he finds that she has an ulterior motive, a brilliant idea that will make them 'pots of money'. The plan goes wrong, of course ... The supporting cast of characters includes aristocratic crooks, a widowed Viscountess with a penchant for Italian waiters, an artist with a guilty secret who is being blackmailed by the alcoholic wife of a theatre impresario and a bank manager who carries handcuffs and a shotgun when chasing fraudsters, but not everyone is who they appear to be. All their lives collide in a series of scandals, shocks and surprises that continue to the very last page.