Major John Wilbraham, newly retired from the British Army in Kenya and now living in the English country-side in a wisteria covered cottage with his faithful cocker spaniel finds life tame.

Seeking adventure and romance, he consults Mr. Parker Pyne.

Fairly soon the rather shy major meets the equally shy Freda Clegg. An adventure follows, involving buried treasure, maps written in Swahili, crooked lawyers, thugs, maidens in distress and imprisonment in a water filling cellar.

All ends happily, mainly due to the imaginative prowess of that inimitable authoress, Mrs. Ariadne Oliver (Agatha Christie's alter ego). John Wilbraham and Freda Clegg soon find themselves not only embarking on a quest for buried treasure in Africa, but more importantly, each finds that they are in love with the other.

Another charming love story of an autumn romance from the pen of Agatha Christie.