Twist of Fate finds Rowlands and his wife and daughters enjoying a holiday at a Cornish hotel, where the other guests include a group of actors, making a film in the locality. But the peaceful atmosphere is shattered when the leading lady is found dead, in suspicious circumstances, and Rowlands must turn his investigative skills to solving the crime. Then an old flame — Secret Service agent Iris Barnes — turns up, in her red sports car, and before long, she and Rowlands are heading to Spain, on the trail of a pair of Republican revolutionaries, and a boy who has run off to join the International Brigade. For it is 1937, and the Spanish Civil War is raging. Once more, Rowlands must focus his unique skills as a detective, to uncover the truth which will connect the crime in Cornwall with the events taking place on the streets of Barcelona.