A simple object, a small box of ivory for holding snuff, of hardly any value whatsoever. Yet when it is stolen from the French ambassador to Britain, detective Richard Duvall is ordered to abandon his honeymoon, travel to London, and recover the snuff box at all costs. There he finds the struggle for the box has already cost one life. And when the trail leads him to Brussels, he finds his wife has proceeded him there and checked herself into an asylum...