In this latest installment of the Daisy Dalrymple mystery series, Daisy has been invited by an old school chum, Sybil, to visit the farm estate where she works as a private secretary to a writer. Sybil feels that there is something "off" about her employers' continuing illness and wants Daisy's opinion. The farm is a full of miscellaneous relatives and visitors, including two young men seemingly besotted with Myra, the young lady of the house. When the author, Humphrey Birtwhistle, turns up dead, the doctor calls in Scotland Yard - specifically, Daisy's husband Alec Fletcher.

Although sometimes lacking in a tightly written plot, this series is quite enjoyable due to the author's cleverly inserted commentaries on the social changes of the time. From Stravinsky's Firebird, women wearing trousers, pulp fiction to the changing social classes of post WWI England, the strength of this series is in the subtle creation of place and time.