It's the height of the Roaring Twenties, and the Clio, probably the most expensive steam-yacht in the world, heads down the Amazon. On board is the widowed Lady Oswestry (whose main concern is to acquire her favourite face-cream, so as not to have awkward wrinkles appear just when she's fixing her sights on Sir James Annesley), her younger son Hugo (on the verge of entering politics, and wondering which of the young ladies on board he should fall in love with), and her seemingly good-for-nothing but capable-of-anything older son Harry. Along with a number of gentlemen and young ladies, including a doctor, a professor who has studied the wildlife of the area, and the politically astute Stella Barlow, the cruise seems a pleasant chance to see interesting new sights and perhaps fall in love.
But when news arrives that revolution has broken out in the region, it becomes evident Harry didn't opt for this particular destination on a whim. And when a manoeuvre to avoid a floating mine grounds the Clio, these idle holidaymakers find themselves faced with fever, encounters with deadly wildlife, news of the revolution happening all around them, and the sheer boredom of being grounded, leading them to question just what they are doing with their lives.
By turns comic, dramatic, political and introspective, L H Myers' second novel is both a criticism of the idle classes who see themselves as separate from a world that is at times in desperate straits, as well as a light comic look at love, hopes, dreams, and the encounter with sometimes awkward realities.