The Prince of Wales has asked four wealthy entrepreneurs and their wives to the palace to discuss the construction of a railroad that would stretch the full length of Africa. But the prince's gathering proves disastrous when the mutilated body of a prostitute hired for a late-night frolic turns up among the queen's monogrammed sheets in a palace linen closet. Thomas Pitt, a mainstay of Special Services, is summoned to resolve the crisis. The Pitts' maid, Gracie, is also recruited to pose as a servant to find clues to hidden rivalries and attachments that could have led to murder.
