The idyllic scene is shattered when Spiro is reported drowned after falling overboard while out at night sailing in Godfrey Manning's boat.
One theme running through the book is the idea that Corfu is the setting for The Tempest. Another theme is that of a dolphin which will approach humans.
The book was serialised in the British magazine Woman's Journal.[2]
Julian Gale and the play Tiger, Tiger (with a different author) are also mentioned in The Wind Off the Small Isles (1968) by the same author.