This novel was written by Dexter after he wrote a screenplay for an episode titled The Wolvercote Tongue in series 2 of the television programme Inspector Morse.

[2] The Historical Cities of England tour group is arriving in Oxford, staying in the best hotel in town.

The highlight in Oxford will be provided by tour member Laura Stratton, who is donating the Wolvercote Tongue to the Ashmolean Museum, pursuant to her first husband's will.

Dr Theodore Kemp has written a book about this piece from the time of King Alfred the Great, gold set with rubies, and the tongue fits exactly with a buckle also found in England.

The hotel doctor determines she died of natural causes, and the police are called in to deal with the theft.

Aldrich wrote of a daughter he never saw, born to an Englishwoman, while Brown met the woman, now a grandmother, who had been his love then.

After he has arrested Downes, London police alert them that his wife has been hit by a car there and is in the hospital with broken bones.

Ashenden writes to Morse with the real truth of what he did in the 45 minutes when Mrs Stratton died, and when Kemp was killed, private to him and traceable.

Eddie Stratton is arrested as he steps off the plane in New York City, and tells Morse by phone about his financial situation.

Janet Roscoe and Phil Aldrich, married over 40 years, wanted to ruin Kemp's life.

The driver of the other car, a 29 year old married woman, was killed and his wife lost the pregnancy and her mobility, as she is paralyzed.

Kemp fell, hit his head on the fireplace, a second injury to his fragile skull, and bled to death.

Eddie thinks about the casket with his wife's body in it, and the ruby from the Wolvercote tongue hidden in the side.

Kirkus Reviews felt that "this effort succeeds best in the small details—e.g., the use of a hearing aid as a clue—while being somewhat slapdash and sketchy in its character analysis and dialogue.

Less impressive than the eight previous Morse stories, and far less adroit than Dexter's handling of The Wench is Dead.

[2] In contrast to the televised story, the novel The Jewel That Was Ours, "Morse makes these same deductions only to find himself utterly, shamefully wrong — a delicious moment — before groping his way to the new, improved solution: an emotion-loaded switcheroo worthy of Agatha Christie.

The episode of the Inspector Morse TV series which corresponds to the novel is entitled The Wolvercote Tongue (screened season 2, 1987).

Unique among the series, the book was written four years after the corresponding TV episode, for which Dexter had created the story.