When Claude goes to the Isle of Skye for a quiet holiday with his dad and aunt, all recuperating from the recent death of his mother, he expects his only adventures to be in his active imagination. However, having been befriended by Roddy, an old fisherman, Claude is amazed to see what look like hundreds of body parts being washed up on the beach. On closer examination, these turn out to be shop-window dummies and a curious attraction leads Roddy to keep one of the heads as a souvenir. But Roddy's harmless pilfering surely shouldn't attract the attentions of two very dangerous-looking men from Italy, who mysteriously appear on Skye? A fantastic mystery story, which moves from Scotland to Italy, and will grip the reader all the way.