After his engine fails, he crashes and is rescued by an escaped convict, Denis Compton, who turns out to have been framed for embezzlement by his Italian half-brother, Baron Rodrigo Mattani, who is smuggling drugs into England.

It involves episodes characteristic of Shute: flying, small boat sailing, and a love story.

Stenning was a major character in Shute's first (unpublished at the time ) novel Stephen Morris.

Stenning also crops up as a comparatively minor character in Shute's next two novels So Disdained (1928) and Lonely Road (1932).

In his autobiography Slide Rule, Shute recalls writing the book twice over and rewriting large portions a third time.