Slumped on a seat under an oak tree is old Sampson Warrenby, with a bullet through his head.

Everybody in the village is ready to tell Chief Inspector Hemingway who did it. Could the murderer have been the dead man's niece? Or perhaps it was the other town solicitor? The couple at the farm had a guilty secret-what was it? And why is it someone else actually "wants "to be the prime suspect? Add to this the fact that Warrenby was blackmailing someone, and Hemingway has his work cut out for him.