One evening without warning they are visited by his recently orphaned and very rich young nephew, James Medland, who has a large amount of cash on him.

Unable to resist the opportunity put in his way, William Marble sends his wife to bed early that night, saying that he wants to talk business and suggests she pleads a headache so as not to seem unsociable.

He then slips poison in his nephew's drink, killing him, and William buries him in the back garden under cover of darkness that night.

Annie assumes at first that her husband was given or lent the money by James, and she says that now they can afford it, she wants them to move to a better house with an attractive garden.

The doctor calls in the police, and the fate William has so long dreaded comes to pass when he is put on trial and hanged for her murder.