Jane Amanda Edwards has known the Stone family--and the Carrs, the family of old Mr. Stone's daughter--all her life. But neither she nor anyone else has developed a liking for Sophia Stone Carr, a tyrannical, cruel woman who holds the purse-strings on her whole family. When Sophia is killed, no one has an alibi, everyone has a motive. Jane is warned that she will regret looking for the murderer, but a second murder impels her to look for the solution.