It is 1956 on the French Riviera. A world-weary Bernie Gunther is working as concierge at the Grand Hotel, St Jean Cap Ferrat, living under a false name. The Riviera retains its louche glamour even in these gloomy post-war years - a sunny place for shady people.Bernie plays bridge to stave off boredom and misses his old detective life. Then his past walks through the door in the shape of Harold Hennig, a former captain in the Nazi security service. Bernie never forgets a face, especially when it belongs to a mass murderer who, in 1945, was responsible for the deaths of thousands, among them a woman Bernie loved. Since the war, Hennig has enjoyed a lucrative career as a blackmailer. Hennig's target on the Cote d'Azur is a famous resident with a dark past and plenty to hide - the writer, Somerset Maugham. A shared love of bridge draws Bernie to Maugham's magnificent Villa Mauresque, where Maugham tells him of a compromising photograph that reveals a lot more about Maugham's life than his notorious sexuality. Taken in 1937, it shows a group of naked men beside a swimming pool - one of whom is the infamous spy and homosexual, Guy Burgess, who, with Donald Maclean, has recently defected to Moscow. Hennig has the photograph and is demanding $50,000 for its release. Bernie is reluctant to become Maugham's agent but his former life has made him as vulnerable to blackmail as Maugham himself. Not only that - he has a massive score to settle with Hennig.