Jeff Chaussier must go to Europe to find his fiancée Bryna who is isolated from her family and in the hands of a sinister man with designs on her. There is the problem that he is afraid of flying. His only information as to Bryna's location comes in the form of cryptic letters with ominous overtones.

To get there, he is engaged as a chaperone for a student who is seemingly interested only in booze and babes - or is he. A shadowy group is in the background who provide reports to an unknown employer which increase the sense of danger hovering over Bryna. As he travels around Italy, a mysterious woman shows up to give Jeff hints as to Bryna's location.

This sends Jeff careening around, charge in tow until Bryna is found. But she has apparently become far too involved with her captor. Why was she taken? What do her abductors want? What stresses have been placed on her by her bodyguard's attempts at seduction. Jeff has one ally as he attempts to answer his questions and regain Bryna. His brother in Sorrento is a retired Navy officer with many skills. At last, Bryna is found in a hotel in Rome, but in a compromising position. Jeff must now deal with his feeling of betrayal as he tries to get Bryna to safety.

Stung by his distance because of what has happened, Bryna conceives a plan to resolve her situation. Unhappily it involves returning to her captor to ferret out information about the forces behind her ordeal. Jeff goes in pursuit once more. Her captor offers to return her if Jeff will attend a midnight meeting in the ruins of Pompeii from which only one of them will emerge alive.

Jeff goes to a midnight meeting he knows to be a trap with his brother and his ward as his only help, until the mysterious woman who has dogged his travels appears with her own score to settle. Pompeii does not end matters. There is still a relationship to repair.