In voluntary exile in Athens, Marcus Corvinus receives a letter from his antiquarian stepfather Priscus, who has learned that the 4½ ft solid gold statue of a female baker, one of a large number of valuable gifts to the Delphic Oracle by the 6th century BC King Croesus of Lydia, has reappeared and is being offered for sale in Athens on the black market. Corvinus agrees to be his agent and to try and buy it. But, as a result, he finds himself caught up in the world of organised crime, as well as in a deadly struggle of interests with other, less scrupulous, collectors.