Just promoted to the Board of Customs & Excise, Nick Storey is asked to help a Metropolitan Police enquiry into illegal arms sales to Morocco. Military hardware for "rockhopper" missiles misdescribed as telephonic equipment and destined for Morocco has been seized at Avonmouth. The exporters claim that they had Ministry of Defence approval, which the Ministry denies. Investigating a series of exports by British arms manufacturers indicates a pattern of implausible exports. The evidence increases after Nick arranges for a large cargo ship to be detained at Southampton. But as the net closes in on those involved in "Operation Ghost Sands", Nick, Rosemary and one of their daughters are targeted and even the outcome smells of rotten fish. "Ghosts in the machine" is the twenty-first book in a series of detective stories set in HM Customs & Excise, by Richard Hernaman Allen, a former Commissioner.