The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency must confront an unwanted new problem: competition.

‘Ex-CID. Ex-New York. Ex-cellent’ reads the sign outside the Satisfaction Guaranteed Detective Agency. Cephas Buthelezi certainly talks the talk, Mma Ramotswe discovers, but would he have the wherewithal to deal with her current case – a man who has been attacked by ostrich rustlers, and is eager to reassess his life?

Meanwhile, there are difficulties at the Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors garage, and romantic complications ensue when Mma Makutsi sets up a typing school for men . . .