Archaeologist Martin Day had an affair with Ophelia Blue twenty years ago, and suddenly she is on her way to Naxos because she needs his help. He is excited to see her again, but also wary as his life now revolves around Helen. Ophelia, however, behaves perfectly - until she disappears after their first evening together without revealing why she had come. The police refuse to regard Ophelia as a missing person, nor is the difficult new Chief of Police, Inspector Kyriakos Tsountas, the kind of man to accept that her disappearance is connected to a strange local legend. The legend speaks of a lost ancient artefact known as the Kallos of Naxos. Only one man ever tried to find the Kallos, and he's dead. If Day is to find Ophelia he will need all his ingenuity and imagination, and quite possibly his courage.

This is the fourth in the Naxos Mysteries series, in which many things come to a head for Martin Day in his search for the missing Ophelia.