The Empress of Blandings, prize-winning pig and all-consuming passion of Clarence, Ninth Earl of Emsworth, has disappeared. Blandings Castle is in uproar and there are suspects a-plenty - from the scandalous memoirist Galahad Threepwood to the Efficient Baxter, and the chilling former secretary to Lord Emsworth. Even Beach the Butler seems deeply embroiled. And what of Sir Gregory Parsloe-Parsloe, Clarence's arch-rival and neighbour, whose own pig competes with the Empress for local glory? With the castle full or imposters and deception around every corner, how will the Earl ever get to the bottom of the disappearance of the castle's most precious occupant?