Plot Summary:When elderly Harriet Huntingforest is attacked by an intruder who flees empty-handed Campion links the incident to the fact that she is aunt to the three young Fitton siblings, whose family once tried to prove a claim to a title which would give them the throne of the Dalmatian state of Averna. Posing as tourists he and Lugg arrive in the village of Pontisbright to stay with the family. A further intrusion leads Campion to confront wealthy tycoon Brett Savanake, who also wants the papers which will give him the Avernan crown and who has Campion shanghaied.