When Maximilian Paget inherits Mayfield Court, he and his niece Catherine find it to be half ruined, and haunted by the wraith of a murdered child. Catherine discovers a child's skeleton, bringing rural Detective Inspector Saul Jackson and his bibulous but shrewd sergeant, Herbert Bottomley, to investigate. Once returned to London, neither uncle nor niece can shake off the baleful influence of Mayfield. And when Uncle Max is murdered by a deranged killer who, Jackson discovers, has left a trail of corpses in an attempt to secure a hidden fortune, Catherine herself faces imminent death and a monstrous betrayal. Set in late Victorian times, this is the ninth Inspector Jackson story.