 The hero of "Sam the Sudden", Samuel P. Shotter is a young man of agreeable features, nephew to American Export-Import millionaire John B. Pynsent, a serious man who disapproves of Sam's rather lax attitude to business.Having spent much of his youth traipsing around the world, he travelled much on a tramp steamer, where he became friends with the cook "Hash" Todhunter.During a fishing holiday in Canada, he fell in love with a photograph of Kay Derrick, whom he meets later while employed by Lord Tilbury.