Roger Norton Vane is dead Twenty years ago he went for a walk in the Thai jungle with his partner & never returned After years of wild speculation & fruitless searches finally his death is to be made official & somebody will inherit his accumulated wealth Ethelred Tressider crime writer & Vane&s biographer attends the memorial service but little does he expect to find himself talking to Vane himself apparently returned from the dead Chaos ensues & while trying to complete the biography it becomes clear that many people wish the man calling himself Vane had stayed dead & that his anecdotes had died with him