Detective Inspector John Appleby meets the Foxcroft family over tea, biscuits, and murder.

All the members of the Foxcroft family have returned to their country estate for a holiday and, perhaps, discussion about some problems of inheritance. They are a witty and talented family, full of eccentricities, jealousies, and schemes. Each one has been given a pistol, for the principal entertainment is to be target shooting. But one member of the family seems to have decided to do his shooting in the study, and has chosen Sir Wilfred Foxcroft as a target...