Two climbers die mysteriously on the Old Man of Scamadale, a stack off the Scottish coast. One of them, Stark, is famous. He has come to reconnoitre the Old Man for a television programme. But the local laird is vehemently opposed to any kind of publicity: he wants to keep the tourists away. So Stark plans the assault on the stack with the use of boats and helicopters.
The police would have accepted the two deaths as accidents. But the laird and his climbing friends convince the police that both men were murdered. And in doing so they put themselves under strong suspicion, for they alone in the vicinity appear to have the expertise needed to perform the killings.