"When imperious American widow Beatrice Chavender eats a forkful of inferior ham at her sister's country house near London, it affects the lives of everyone around her-- her sister, her brother-in-law, her sister's butler, her sister's poor relation, Sally, Sally's fiancé Lord Holbeton, and, most of all, Mrs. Chavender's own one-time fiancé, 'Ham King' J.B. Duff, whose rotten product spoils her breakfast"--P. [4] of cover.