Scobie Malone, Cleary's Australian policeman hero, has finally married his upper class girlfriend Lisa. While on honeymoon in New York, she is kidnapped, because she unfortunately happens to be present when the wife of the city's mayor is abducted; she is an innocent victim, taken only to preserve the anonymity of the kidnappers. Ransom is the story of the investigation to find the two women before time runs out; Malone is put into the difficult position of desperately wanting to be involed even though not only having no official standing, but also lacking the detachment which would be regarded as desirable in an official investigator.