On doctor's orders, Bertie Wooster retires to sample the bucolic delights of Maiden Eggesford. But his idyll is rudely shattered by Aunt Dahlia who wants him to nobble a racehorse. Similar blots on Bertie's horizon come in the shape of Major Plank, the African explorer; Vanessa Cook, proud beauty and 'molder of men'; and Orlo Porter, who seems to have nothing else to do but think of sundering Bertie's head from his body.