Young Jimmy Crocker has been having too much fun and his antics have attracted the attention of the newspapers. So much so that, even though he is currently living in Britain, even the New York papers are reporting on this former New Yorker's peccadilloes. The latest is the knockout punch to the face of a well known young British member of the upper class, Lord Percy Whipple.
Jim's stepmother is the one who moved Jim and his dad Bingley from New York City to London. Recently married to the dad, Eugenia is crazy to carve a place for herself and Bingley among the nobs. Her great ambition is having Bingley made a lord. But she fears that Jim's latest stunt has spoiled Bingley's chance of achieving that distinction. When Jim hears from his dad how upset the stepmom is, he decides he had best remove himself from the scene and so he heads off to buy a ticket to NYC. While doing so, he encounters and is immediately smitten by the sight of a lovely young woman, Ann Chester. Overhearing her talking to a friend, Jim finds out that, for reasons unknown to him, Ann despises Jimmy Crocker, she says he is a "perfect, utter, hopeless worm." He also figures out that Ann did not recognize him when they spoke briefly earlier. So he books passage on the same ship she will be returning to New York on and introduces himself to her as Bayliss.
They arrive in New York as fast friends and while dining out together, Jim is recognized by an old friend and greeted by his real name. Naturally Ann is surprised and has questions which he dismisses by claiming no knowledge of this Jimmy Crocker and telling his friend that he is mistaken. Ann believes him.
Speaking of Ann, her family has its problems too. Namely Ogden Ford. Ann lives with her uncle, Peter Pett. Pett has a wife with a son, this Ogden, who is fourteen and pain in his stepfather's side, sitting in Pett's favorite chair and smoking Pett's cigarettes. Pett wants to ship the boy off to boarding school. The mother refuses to discipline the lad and Ogden has become a spoiled, overweight brat. Ann and Pett have hatched a scheme to deal with Ogden. They want to kidnap him and send him off to the care of a veterinarian who has had great success getting spoiled, fat pet dogs back in to shape and trained. As Jim becomes more involved with Ann, he gets drawn into the kidnap Ogden plan and soon moves into the Pett mansion.
As a society hostess and famous author, Mrs Pett loves hosting parties and having rising young artists as house guests. But she lives in fear of her precious Ogden being kidnapped, a not unreasonable fear, as Ogden has been kidnapped twice before. The arrival of a new house guest, Ann's new friend Bayliss and that of a new butler at the same time and a word in her ear by one of the other house guests, Lord Wisbeach, has her a bit on edge. So she hires a detective to do some detecting. Things become more and more complicated. Jim has still not revealed his true identity to the woman he has decided is the love of his life, Ann. Who is engaged to Lord Wisbeach, not because she cares for him but because it seemed like the right thing to do at the time.
Wodehouse has certainly worked up a complicated plot here with Jim pretending not to be Jim. And his dad pretending to be a butler. And Lord Wisbeach, who is not a lord of any kind. And the detective pretending to be a parlor maid. And Ogden, who figures out the kidnapping scheme and is fine with it, as long as he gets half of the ransom. As he says, "I've got something valuable to sell, and I'm darned if I'm going to keep giving it away."
But I didn't find it as amusing as some of Wodehouse's other novels. The machinations of Jim and Ann just can't compare to the mastermind, Jeeves. I enjoyed the story and enjoyed seeing how Jim got himself out of the entanglement he created. But it never really made me chuckle.
You can read the book online for free at Project Gutenberg.
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