The story begins as Uncle Fred knocks off Sir Raymond Bastable’s top hat with a Brazil nut fired through the window of the Drones Club from a catapult.

Sir Raymond assumes that the culprit was a young Drone, but is unsure how to respond, knowing that a letter to The Times would open him to ridicule, especially as he is about to stand for Parliament.

The eventual novel, "Cocktail Time", which Bastable publishes under a pseudonym, becomes a succès de scandale after being condemned by a bishop.

Afraid of being unmasked as the author, Bastable allows his ne'er-do-well nephew Cosmo Wisdom to take the credit, and the royalties, of the book.

Oily travels to Dovetail Hammer and attempts to blackmail Sir Raymond, but Uncle Fred manages to extract the letter by posing as Inspector Jervis of the Yard.

Cocktail Time was published in April 1958 in the Ladies' Home Journal magazine with illustrations by Al Parker.