Detective Inspector Harry Charlton finds himself invited to a reunion at Mereworth School at which a particularly unpleasant, but very famous and accomplished old boy, Colonel Bernard Garstang - VC, DSO and MC, aka 'Rhino' will be present. The Colonel is attending this event in order to persuade his daughter Diana and his ex-wife Muriel that Diana should accompany him to live in Port Douglas, Nigeria. He is both inebriated and armed. But also there is Gordon Hollander, who is much enamoured of Diana, and is far from keen on allowing her to be taken off anywhere. Gordon's father, Sir James, also doesn't want Rhino in the family given what he knows about him from school days - and Mark Longdon seems to have an excess of secrets that Rhino is willing to divulge. So, as the title suggests, it doesn't look good for the Colonel.