Ngaio Marsh returns to her New Zealand roots to transplant the classic country-house murder mystery to an upland sheep station on South Island and produces one of her most exotic and intriguing novels.

Parliament member Florence Rubrick has the wool pulled over her eyes—quite literally. She's been found dead, her body pressed into a bale of wool.

When Inspector Roderick Alleyn pays a visit to her New Zealand country home, he meets two fine, handsome men and two lovely young women, all of whom have reason to be grateful to dear Flossie for saving their lives. But as Inspector Alleyn learns, there are secrets aplenty hiding in the floorboards of that sheep station, and one in particular conceals a murderous motive that has the look and smell of treason.