It's a high price to pay for a pack of smokes when Frost interrupts his vacation to filch some of Commander Mullett's cigarettes and finds himself pressed into emergency duty. Denton Division is shorthanded after a car crash involving several tipsy high-ranking cops, and on Guy Fawkes night there's more mischief abroad than just a few children making the rounds begging pennies and lighting firecrackers. In the next few days, Frost will deal with a parade of miscreants, including a blackmailer, a shifty businessman, a not-so-grieving widow, a sexual pervert or two, a crazed housewife, and a cold-blooded kidnapper. The clock is ticking, and Frost is perilously short of clues ...