West Country Wildlife's birdwatching package to America has presented tour guide Rob Earle with the perfect opportunity for a reunion with his old college friends Mick Brownscombe, now working in Texas as an environmental consultant, and Oliver Adamson. It is the first time in twenty years the three have been together - since the fateful holiday to America during which they met the enigmatic Laurie . . .

Rob's tour party is hoping for spectacular sights at High Island on the Upper Texas coast. For here - as the spring storms begin - swarms of migrating birds fall from the sky seeking shelter. But as the rain pours down and the birds descend, the party is greeted with a far more shocking sight - the dead body of Mick Brownscombe.

Back in Britain PIs George and Molly Palmer-Jones are working on a minor fraud case in which the name of Brownscombe Associates has also cropped up. So when George receives a desperate transatlantic call from his friend Rob, he is on the first plane to Texas.

But his investigations make little progress - until the second body is found . . .