Six people meet regularly to eat in the Red Deer in Quinshire, but one night it seems that Lady Blanchflower and her dining companion, Mrs Whitburn, are in a somewhat unusual mood. It's not clear if anything's really wrong - until Lady Blanchflower is found the following morning in the castle, strangled by a silk stocking, while Mrs Whitburn has vanished without a trace…

Enter Inspector McMorran and his colleague Anthony Bathurst to get to the bottom of the mystery. Once another body is discovered, Bathurst has a clear puzzle to solve – which of the ladies was the intended victim and which one was seemingly collateral damage? And why was an actor’s wig found underneath Lady Blanchflower’s body?