From 1938 to 1969 the fictional crime novelist and detective Paul Temple, together with his Fleet Street journalist wife Steve, solved case after case in one of BBC radio's most popular series.

They inhabited a sophisticated world of chilled cocktails and fast cars, where the women were chic and the men wore cravats - a world where Sir Graham Forbes, of Scotland Yard, usually needed Paul's help with his latest tricky case.

Paul is contacted by one Maurice Lonsdale, whose brother-in-law was apparently killed in a car accident whilst abroad. His widowed sister Margaret is increasingly convinced that her husband is still alive - and she wants Paul Temple to investigate!

Paul and Steve find that their own lives are soon in danger as they become embroiled in a deception stretching from London to Switzerland. Anonymous gunmen, exploding cars, ransom demands and mysterious rendezvous leave them with some puzzling questions. Is Carl Milbourne dead or alive - and what is the significance of the phrase 'too young to die"?