Archibald Sinclair Cholmondeley (pronounced Chumley) is an ill educated, but picaresque, street-wise youth, who sees himself as a composite character of his boyhood heroes-Robin Hood and The Saint.

Archie is an opportunist, who never passes up a chance to supplement his income. But despite his dubious schemes to provide the few pleasures available to a financially deprived young person, living through years of war and austerity, he lives by a self-developed code of conduct. He respects the aged, is charitable to the needy, generous to his friends and family, and given the right motivation...

James, a 16 year-old street-wise shipping clerk and Kathleen, a 14 year-old, self-willed grammar school girl, meet in London in 1946. They fall deeply in love. But because of James' seemingly shiftless manner and pressure from members of Kathleen's family they drift apart. While James is away on National Service Kathleen meets Craig, whom she later marries, but realizes before the honeymoon is over that she can never be happy with him. James returns and he and Kathleen renew their relationship as passionate lovers. Kathleen becomes pregnant. But Craig accepts her infidelity and refuses to...

Group Captain Randolph Tremayne, RAF, the British Air Attache and Lieutenant Colonel Bradford Rantzen, USAF, the United States' Assistant Air Attache, both serving in their respective embassies in Bangkok, are embittered and disillusioned men. Passed over for promotion and beset by family discord and tragedy.

Both men are former heroes, but are now tarnished by their experiences or weaknesses. Tremayne is a gallant, but philandering, self-indulgent opportunist and Rantzen is a heroic, but war-wearied veteran, suffering nightmares over the time he was a prisoner of war in Korea and fears...

Gary Remington, a warrant officer in the British Army Intelligence Corps and a veteran of several wars, obtains a compassionate discharge from the Army to care for his fourteen-year-old daughter, the only surviving member of his family-victims of a hit-and-run driver. Remington determines to seek justice for the deaths of his wife and son, but soon realises that the only way this can be achieved is to dispense his own kind of wild justice-outside the law. His fateful decision leads him to take on the role of a vengeful vigilante who shows no quarter in executing his brand of justice.

Rex Baxter, a successful property developer, with a wife who despises him, but tolerates his philandering life-style for her own interests, and a young son who adores him, has a clandestine affair with an "au pair" staying with the family. While his wife and son are away he plans a weekend of sensual pleasure with the girl. On returning from shopping for their supper he finds her dead in the kitchen. He calls the police, who find all the clues they need to charge him with her rape and murder. He is tried for the offences, found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Ten years into his...