Gordon Gregg, an English writer living near Leghorn, in Italy, stands in for the British consul for a while. He receives the owner of a stranded yacht, dines on board and finds the torn photograph of a young Englishwoman, Elma Heath. The next day, the consulate safe has been opened and the yacht has vanished.
His investigation takes him to London, to Scotland, then to Finland, at that time a province of the Russian Empire, where the young woman seems to be in great danger. Amid false identities, an ordinary man tries to save a woman he does not know.
Fast and full of mystery, this novel is easy to read in the language you are learning.
