Bennett is an English expatriate living in France with a champagne taste
and a beer bankroll. Happy-go-lucky and a bit roguish, he places an ad
in the "International Herald Tribune" offering his services -- any
services. He pursues a response from a wealthy Englishman named Julian
Poe who has developed a means of producing truffles and is close to
cornering the immensely lucrative truffle market. Bennett signs on and
finds himself in Monaco, where he is able to live in a style to which he
has always wished to become accustomed (including eating to his heart's
content -- a Mayle trademark!). Soon the Sicilian and Corsican Mafiosi
intrude and Bennett is joined by the beautiful and experienced (in all
ways) Anna. Ham-fisted goons, gendarmes working at cross purposes,
French village busybodies, and an order of monks dedicated to the god
Bacchus all play a role in the surprising, and more than a little
satisfying, denouement.