Henry Marchmont is a prosperous and respectable solicitor with an uneventful past. However, one night he is found murdered in his London home. The scanty clues seem to poin to a mysterious Mr Landale, who has met the solicitor on the very day of his death, for the first time in twenty-five years. But the detective and young Richard Marchmont soon discover that there is a triangle of financial intrigue to unravel before the truth can be learned, and that not one suspicious character, but several, have been lurking near Mr Marchmont's home at the hour of the crime! Slowly the police start to wring startling and incriminating confessions from a cold-hearted assistant clerk, from another lawyer, from a woman, and from a millionaire recluse, until amazing facts eventually emerge...