A couple of happy-go-lucky Venetian gondoliers discover that one of them is heir to the throne of a distant kingdom.

Gustav Von Aschenbach, a passionate composer, arrives in Venice as a result of wanderlust and there meets a young man by whose beauty he becomes obsessed.

Stamford and Carla attend the wedding of a longtime friend of Stamford's, Lee Cheng. When the wedding toast is drunk, chaos ensues when an entire table of guests is poisoned. Only four, including Stamford, survive. The six victims are a mixed bunch, from a major industrialist to a gossip columnist. How can you find the murderer when you don't even know who the target was? Stamford works his way through the false leads and learns much about the underside of the lives of the rich and famous before he uncovers the bizarre truth