Inspector Mallett of the C.I.D. is on holiday at Pendlebury Old Hall. Although the Hall is a charming country hotel, his stay has been a disappointment. Room, food and service have been such a letdown that he eagerly anticipates the end of his holiday. His last trial is to sit and listen as the hotel boor, whose family once owned the house, sits down at his table. The next day the man is dead, an apparent suicide. Mallett's investigation of the suspicious death inadvertently embroils him in family passions and murder.