Peter Halloran, a migrant to South Africa after the end of World War II is a successful and profitable designer and builder of yachts and small watercraft.

One day, in the local yacht club bar, he meets Walker, an alcoholic ex-soldier, who tells him an improbable tale of a hidden treasure.

Toward the end of the war, their band ambushed a truck convoy, which contained a massive treasure in gold bars, jewels, and the State Crown of Ethiopia.

The mystery deepens as the men travel to Tangiers, thence to ports around the Mediterranean, their steps dogged by unsavory characters.

This tale was inspired by the true story of the Flight of the Norwegian National Treasury, the smuggling of their gold reserves out of Norway during the Second World War.