James Compton, an English journalist and crime writer, is vacationing at a hotel in Italy, recovering from the after effects of a car accident.

Compton is intrigued by the case and visits her grave in the protestant cemetery in Naples where he finds a single wreath from what appears to be a group or organisation with which Dawson was involved, calling itself the Stepping Stones.

After a slightly jarring conversation with the hotel manager where he appears to be warned off further investigation, Compton returns to England and continues his enquiries.

A number of unsettling incidents occur but he refuses to stop his investigations and quickly becomes embroiled in a world of blackmail and espionage leading him to doubt his own sanity.

In 1970 it was turned into the film Fragment of Fear starring David Hemmings, Flora Robson and Arthur Lowe.