Aunt Augusta, in her late 70's embroils her bachelor nephew, an utterly respectable, dahlia-growing, retired bank manager, in a series of wild escapades. The action moves from London, across the European continent to Istanbul, and ends in Paraguay. Most of the characters are from Aunt Augusta's somewhat murky past, although there are contemporary figures as a CIA agent and his hippie daughter, and Wordsworth from Sierra Leone, who lives with Aunt Augusta as her valet.