Parker Pyne is with a party of people who have travelled through Jordan from Amman to Petra. His companions are Caleb Blundell, an American millionaire, his daughter Carol and secretary, Jim Hurst, Sir Donald Marvel, a British MP, Doctor Carver, an archaeologist and Colonel Dubosc, a Frenchman. Camping in the night, Doctor Carver tells the others of the Nabataeans, the traders who built the city and who were no more than professional racketeers who controlled the trade routes of the area. This talk prompts a discussion on the nature of honesty, the suggestiveness of people and the riches accumulated by Mr. Blundell, demonstrated in part by the expensive pearl earrings worn by his daughter and which keep coming loose. Pyne detects an undercurrent of embarrassment within the discussion.