Having felt the need for a sudden career change, Fen stands for Parliament as an independent in a country constituency with which he has no previous connection and turns up just a week beforing polling day.

Among the various distractions he experiences are the owner of the inn where he is staying slowly demolishing it around him to rebuild it, an escaped lunatic from the asylum in a nearby country house and the enthusiastic friendship of Mr. Judd, a local resident and writer of lurid detective novels under a female pseudonym.

Most importantly he encounters an old acquaintance, a Scotland Yard man Bussy, who is staying at the same inn incognito while investigating the poisoning of a woman without the knowledge of the local force.

Shortly after Bussy requests Fen's assistance in solving the crime, he is found late at night with a knife in him at a local golf club.

Joining forces with Wolfe of the local police and Humbleby, another officer sent down from London, Fen pieces together a string of seemingly unrelated clues to build his case against the culprit.