Cycling historian Professor Dawes and top bike designer Lucyna Langlijne have narrowly escaped death by hitching a lift on a container ship bound for New York.

Back in crisis-hit Scandinavia, Detective Wallender, Herr Braun, Captain Tobler and the Swiss Bike Patrol are attempting to hunt down Der Bromptonaut and the mysterious folding 'Brotherhood'.

In yet another unexpected turn Lucyna's boss, Doctor Moeller, appears to have joined a renegade branch of Swedish Military Intelligence allied to the aims of the Secret Folding Society after using a Brompton that he had kept for 'research purposes'.

Meanwhile at the very edge of Europe, Lucyna and Professor Dawes have decided to jump ship.