A murder at the heart of the British Establishment, an enchanting young woman the toast of London society and an antique shop – cocaine linked them all. The illicit use and trafficking of the drug was spreading dangerously. The newspapers attacked the Home Secretary; the Home Secretary attacked Scotland Yard. The arch-criminal responsible was protected by the diabolical ingenuity of his methods of importation and distribution of the illicit drug. He stretched his tentacles beyond London; but left no traces save a number of details which were apparently quite unconnected and quite unimportant. It was the curious episode of the Folangue pottery which gave Frank Clements the first clue to the mystery.