Rosamund Peyton was looking forward immensely to her stay in Tunisia, where her stepfather was to work on an oil project in the desert, and when Rupert Harringford, the boss of the project, offered the two of them a temporary home in his house, in return for Rosamund's help with the house-keeping, she felt it was altogether a convenient arrangement.

However, fascinating as it was to be living in a real Arab house, Rosamund found conditions somewhat primitive; but she gritted her teeth, determined not to be beaten by the inadequacies of an Arab kitchen and marketing in a foreign tongue. But when a glamorous French widow suddenly appeared on the scene, determined to get her elegant claws firmly into Rupert, Rosamund realized that she had a very different kind of battle on her hands!