They are Sir Edward Leithen, lawyer, Member of Parliament and ex-Attorney General; John Palliser-Yeates, banker; and Charles, Earl of Lamancha, a Cabinet Minister.

They decide to turn to poaching, an activity both technically challenging and also dangerous, since to be caught and publicly named would inevitably result in a career-ending scandal for such high-profile men.

Under the collective name of 'John Macnab', they set up a base in the Highland home of their young friend Sir Archie Roylance, Laird of Crask, disabled war veteran and local Conservative parliamentary candidate.

Colonel Raden, head of an old-established Scottish family and owner of the Glenraden estate, recognises that the writer is some sort of sportsman, and accepts the challenge; Junius Bandicott, an American who is leasing Strathlarrig estate, confesses himself unfamiliar with local customs, but also accepts; and Lord Claybody, the rich and rather vulgar lesee of Haripol Forest, replies via his attorneys threatening to prosecute anyone who trespasses on his land.

Lamancha's job of taking a stag in the Haripol Forest appears impossible when the journalists get wind of the John Macnab story, and crowd into the area.

Claybody is confused, and says that he would gladly have made a game of it had he known that his adversaries were one of his own party leaders, a barrister he is instructing in a big case, and a banker with whom he has done a lot of business.