The story begins with Tey taking the train from Scotland to London in order to attend the final week of performances of her renowned play, Richard of Bordeaux, written under the pseudonym Gordon Daviot.

Soon after, the girl is found dead, apparently having been stabbed with a hat pin, a crime which seems to have been carefully planned.

[2][3] Mark Lawson wrote of the book that "the novel uses crime fiction's past to entertaining present ends.

In a book teeming with literary pseudonyms and disguised identities, there are strong hints that Nicola Upson may make a name in crime fiction as the real thing".

[4] The book was dramatised in ten parts by Robin Brooks for BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour Drama,[5] starring Meg Fraser.