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In the spring of 1948, Sir Hubert Handesley livens up a week-end party at his country house, Frantock Hall, with a jolly game of murder - but one of his guests really does end up dead. When Inspector Alleyn of Scotland Yard is called in, he finds he has to solve more than one mystery, as a famous and very valuable silver cup has disappeared without trace.

The British Home Secretary dies after an operation, but his wife believes he has been murdered. Alleyn investigates the nursing home where the cabinet minister died, and he finds things there are indeed not as they should be.

Alleyn's girlfriend Agatha Troy has a commission to paint the portrait of Sir Henry Ancred, a famous actor, at his house in the country, Ancreton Manor. Troy finds Sir Henry far from well, and before long she sends for Alleyn in his own professional capacity, to investigate her subject's sudden death. Alleyn finds a mixed-up tale of anonymous letters and arguments over the dead man's will - and he decides to have Sir Henry's body exhumed.

A well-known barrister dies in a bizarre incident at a village pub, seemingly killed by poison on the tip of a dart in the course of a bar-room trick. Alleyn has to deal with a mystery which is not at all what it seems to be. Was the death murder, and, if so, what was the motive?