John Rawlings has returned to his beloved London after spending time in America where revolutionary trouble is dangerously brewing. Having made a substantial sum selling carbonated water, Rawlings buys a country house situated on the banks of the Thames in Strand-on-the-Green in Chiswick. But one morning a small child falls into the river, and John, witnessing her rescue, hears her say she did not fall but was pushed. Not long after he is at the theatre...