Visiting France to view some famous medieval bibles (and confusing the natives with his 'fluent' French), Cyril Bonhamy mistakes the most dangerous criminal in France for the director of the Bibliothèque, and is plunged into one of the most terrifying adventures of his life. Pursued by gendarmes through the sewers of Nice, speeding towards Belgium in a white Mercedes, and in mortal combat with the world's strongest man, Olaf Lockjaw, Cyril is all the while feverishly plotting his escape from the fiends he must bring to justice.