Archaeologist Martin Day had an affair with Ophelia Blue twenty years ago, and suddenly she is on her way to Naxos because she needs his help. He is excited to see her again, but also wary as his life now revolves around Helen. Ophelia, however, behaves perfectly - until she disappears after their first evening together without revealing why she had come. The police refuse to regard Ophelia as a missing person, nor is the difficult new Chief of Police, Inspector Kyriakos Tsountas, the kind of man to accept that her disappearance is connected to a strange local legend. The legend speaks of a lost ancient artefact known as the Kallos of Naxos. Only one man ever tried to find the Kallos, and he's dead. If Day is to find Ophelia he will need all his ingenuity and imagination, and quite possibly his courage. This is the fourth in the Naxos Mysteries series, in which many things come to a head for Martin Day in his search for the missing Ophelia.

Archaeologist Martin Day returns home to Naxos from a filming job in the Peloponnese to find that the Naxos Literary Festival has begun. One of the visiting writers is renowned novelist Ricky Somerset whose husband, Ben Lear, is the son of a woman Day's widowed father once seemed about to marry. Day has something on his conscience and decides to talk to Ben, but before he can do so Ricky is killed. His body is burned in a fire at a ruined Venetian tower and it is Day who finds him. A small bronze horse is discovered nearby. Neither Ricky nor the ancient artefact should be anywhere near the tower. To the exasperation of Inspector Andreas Nomikos, Day takes matters into his own hands. The key might well lie in the past, which is his particular area of expertise.

In this third book in the Naxos Mysteries series, Martin Day is forced to sort out his private life as well as resolve the death of Ricky Somerset.