Flavia is a journalist who has been poached from the BBC by a tabloid newspaper, the Daily Trumpet. Her brief: to dig up the dirt on her old friend Nicola Macdonald, now Secretary of State. Flavia exposes Nicola's affair with a younger man, Stephen, and the ensuing sordid headlines threaten to destroy both their careers and marriages. Flavia hopes that she will now be allowed to investigate the more serious corruption taking place in government: the acceptance of bribes from American company Omnicom.com. The Daily Trumpet editor, Miranda, and chief whip, Griff, have other ideas.