The book starts in November 19, where several lawyers get together and discuss a recent case. The accused was found non guilty because of the testimony of a young girl. One of the lawyers, Mr Treves, a retired solicitor, considers that a murder is not the beginning but the end, point zero, and it started months or years before.
Then we are introduced to several characters at different times. One is Superintendent Battle who has to go to his daughter Sylvia's school, when the headmistress writes to him and his wife to tell him about a series of thefts and how Sylvia has confessed to them. Battle goes to the school and talks to the headmistress, Miss Amphrey, who thinks that psychology is the key to discovering the truth. Battle then talks to his daughter, and he is convinced that Sylvia is innocent, and the girl agrees that Miss Amphrey kept looking at her intensely and everybody thought that the headmistress believed that she had been the thief, so she confessed under duress. Battle takes his daughter home, but he thinks that the real culprit is a girl called Olivia Parsons.
On March 8 Nevile Strange, a famous tennis player, is at home with his second wife. We discover that he left his first wife, Audrey, for Kay. Now Kay is unhappy because she andd Nevile have to go and visit Lady Camilla Tressilian, the wife of his late guardian, and she feels that they do not like her. She knows that she and her companion, Mary Aldin, look down on her as they liked Audrey better. Besides, Kay would like to accept the invitation of a friend to go on his yacht. Nevile thinks that they can visit Lady Camilla earlier, and Kay says that this is when Audrey visits, but Nevile says that Audrey won't mind. Actually, he ran into her the day before, and they talked about Kay, and she seemed to accept the situation. Kay is not so sure, and Nevile says that they need to keep visiting Lady Camilla because when she dies, they will get the money his guardian left him.
On April 30 Camilla, who is bedridden, talks to Mary Aldin, her companion and distant cousin. Lady Camilla is shocked that Nevile wants to visit with his new wife when Audrey is in the house, and she would like to refuse. Actually, she would like to stop seeing Kay. Yet, she knows that her late husband would have wanted her to be accommodating. Sir Matthew has been dead for a few years when his dinghy capsized. What is surprising is that the man was a sailing man, but he drowned. Was there something fishy in his death?
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