A newly appointed Lord hires McGill to find out why his son Tm keeps trying to kill himself by jumping off Albert Bridge. As McGill pursues the case, he discovers that someone doesn't want him to learn the truth about a fatal accident that Tim was involved with.

A British minister of Public Works embezzles a quarter million pesos from a Central American republic and flees to London. He then hires McGill to bug his apartment, but refuses to explain why.