His Excellency Walter Brown, Ireland's first resident Ambassador to Turkey presented his credentials in September 1968. He delegated the business of finding a residence to his wife, a French Countess, Colette Coerduroi-Brown.

It is left to Dennis O'Gorman, the mission's Third Secretary, to restrain the exuberance of the Countess and handle the negotiations. He becomes embroiled in Turkish politics, in a house that is considered to be haunted. Enter a murderer!

Diligent, ambitious, often unlucky; Dennis is obliged to turn detective.

Millicent, his fiancée in Limerick, disapproves. The Department in Dublin frowns.

He is fed a diet of red herrings, washed down by undependable wine.

Dennis perseveres.