Elizabeth Bell runs a quiet household, with no family and no more than the usual number of servants. She passes her time thinking about crime and working on her biography of a relative. When a young cousin comes to stay, life in the house becomes uncharacteristically lively. First, cousin Judy burns a hole in Miss Bell’s desk. Next, they spy a burglar on the staircase—a shadowy figure who vanishes without a trace. And finally, Sarah, the nurse, takes the dogs for a walk and never returns.

She is found savagely murdered, and she will not be the last to die. At first, Miss Bell stays calm, but when the police determine that the killer was one of her household, she begins to panic. If one of her servants is the killer, what is an old woman to do?