 Despite his distaste for civil suits, Rumpole agrees to defend a notorious tabloid in a libel suit. A best-selling novelist of historical romances, who counts Hilda and the presiding judge among her fans, is outraged when her puritanical public image is besmirched by the paper s accusations of sexual promiscuity. To complicate matters, when Erskine-Brown goes to a topless bar to research a current case on Rumpole s advice, his picture appears in the same paper. The resultant fallout causes Ballard to challenge his application for membership in an exclusive club and Phyllida to throw him out of the house. The upshot of these developments brings Rumpole an unwelcome house guest.