After having her windscreen shattered by a bullet and discovering that bullets from the same gun have entered the body of a beautiful seventeen year old not to mention having her clothes ruined as she holds a bleeding, dying boy Phryne Fisher is outraged and swears to track down the young man's killer. In doing so she stumbles across the plans for a bank robbery and possible massacre and when her maid Dot is kidnapped nothing can distract Phryne from revenge.When someone shoots out her windshield while she is driving home late at night and she finds a young man dying on the tarmac just outside the dock gates, Phryne Fisher sets out to find out who is responsible, following a trail that leads her into the midst of a bizarre mystery involving bank robbery, tattoo parlors, spiritualism, anarchists, kidnapping, and murder.
There are some things that Phryne Fisher finds intolerable. Having her windscreen shattered by a bullet as she is driving past Melbourne's Victoria Dock...or discovering that bullets from the same gun have entered the body of a beautiful seventeen year old. Not to mention the ruin of her fur and lingerie as she holds the dying, bleeding boy...Phryne swears she will track down the young man's killer, and in doing so stumbles across the plans for a bank robbery and possible massacre...But then her beloved maid Dot is kidnapped and nothing can distract Phryne from revenge.' (Source: back cover, 1992 McPhee Gribble edition)