Lovejoy discovers how the lure of gold brings out the worst kind of treasure seeker when broke as usual & earning a crust as an unlikely babysitter he stumbles across the diaries of a painter that appear to point to the whereabouts of a fabled hoard of Roman gold coins. Lovejoy is tempted to dismiss the whole thing as a hoax but vile threats & violent intimidation have a way of changing his mind. He sets out to unravel the clues in the diaries with some particularly nasty characters dogging his every move.