An intrigue set in the City of London in the months following the stock market crash of 1987. A time of financial buccaneering when Guinness stood for scandal rather than stout, the Tories behaved as though Margaret Thatcher would reign for ever, Robert Maxwell played fast and loose with the markets, mobile phones were the size of champagne bottles and the greed of the bankers was blossoming to full flower. A hostile attempt by one pharmaceutical company to take over a rival, motivated by the emerging pandemic of AIDS, provides the backdrop for scientific, financial, political and corporate villainy. The City of London's ancient watchword "My Word is My Bond" becomes just another innocent victim of the power of money.