Lymond travels to Malta where the Knights of St John are bracing themselves for an attack by the fleet of Sulemein The Magnificent. There he finds a rival, and behaves disgracefully towards him. He also finds, briefy, and fatefully, Oonagh O'Malley. After much hullaballoo and general disorderliness, the action moves back to Scotland, where Lymond's rival and his sister set about winning him over, and he continues to behave disgracefully. Murder and betrayal and sabotage and incitement keep things interesting until the final monumental confrontation and revelation. Interesting that though she plays similar games in the Niccolo series, those books aren't heavily structured like mysteries or adventures or romances, as the Lymond books are - though if I remember correctly, the last three don't lean heavily on that kind of structuring either - as she comes to rely less on that kind of scaffolding to support her stories. Anyway, my point is that the finale has an inescapable 'gather the witnesses' staginess to it despite the skilfulness of the plotting, though it only seems so in retrospect, at the actual time of reading it was bloody riveting.