In a remote British colony in Central Africa in the 1930s, we meet Harold Stebbs, bachelor, newly appointed to the Governor's secretariat; the Governor, Sir Gardnor Hackforth, tipped to be the next Viceroy; Mr Frith, the Acting Chief secretary and a familiar figure at the bar of the Milner Club; Tony Henley, A.D.C.; Old Moses, the butler; Mr Talefwa, left wing editor of the African Independence newspaper...and the Governor's lady, twenty years her husband's junior and already the subject of gossip in European, Asian and African circles.