London, 1910.

Harry Delamere is wishing he hadn't agreed to a midnight meeting in the shipyard where Britain's newest battleship is being built.

Now the police want him for murder, the workers of Europe have declared him their enemy, he's hiding out with a burlesque dancer called Annabella Bliss and everyone's trying to kill him.

Murder, mystery, melodrama, skulduggery, derring-do, international espionage, villainous foreigners, the British class system, a couple of sentimental music hall numbers, significant incidents on railway trains, fights to the death armed with only a duck pâté sandwich, all in correct gentleman's attire.