It was the middle of a sunny May morning when the old man, thin and shabby, suddenly collapsed on the driveway of Captain Merton Heimrich of the New York State police. He was Old Tom, self-appointed handyman for the community of Van Brunt, New York, and someone had shot him. The question was, why would anyone care enough about this harmless eccentric, this roving gardener, to want to kill him? Is there more to Old Tom than a look at his unkempt person and ramshackle living quarters would indicate? As Heimrich starts his investigation the killer coolly sets his sights on a new victim.