Fresh from their run-ins with murder and mayhem in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, Jack and Penny Battle come to Rye, on the seacoast of New Hampshire, to learn about the real America.

Blair's Crest is a decaying summer palace filled with dysfunctional family, and down the drive is a hearty baseball-playing young family with no job and fading prospects. The Battle's house forms the third side of a triangle of greed, madness and murder when Philip disappears on his way to make a fortune from a stock-picking computer formula.

All these events don't add up to a wholesome view of the USA, and when Jack buys a used Rolls Royce his perceptions are even more askew. Or are the motives for murder only those of most crime: emotions roused to a breaking point?