A national property crash and the breakdown of his marriage to Lavender, property developer Michael Mostyne has hit rock bottom.

With legal battles, a court appearance over his son Mark, followed by an acrimonious divorce, Mike is forced to leave his provincial home, desert his much loved elderly mother, and move to London.Starting again as a West London estate agent, and in order to reinstate his lost fortunes, Mike moves into the murky and the intriguing world of property dealing.

Tangling with the Irish Republican Army en route, he reluctantly finds himself in the hands of MI5, who see him as a possible recruit.In this right of passage tale, Mike discovers a variety of available women, but in his quest to find happiness, he meets and marries the mysterious Communist academic, Nadezhda Antova, and once again finds himself embroiled with the British secret service.