The story begins with a pretty young heiress and her uncle seated outside their summer home on Spanish Cape, escaping the guests at her parents' house party.

As Ellery is investigating the crime, another household member commits suicide out of sheer desperation at the potential revelation of a dreaded secret.

By the time the uncle escapes his captor and swims to shore, Ellery is ready to reveal the identity of the murderer and the reason for the victim's nudity in a dramatic final scene.

The character of Ellery Queen was probably initially suggested by the novels featuring detective Philo Vance by S.S. Van Dine, which were very popular at the time.

"For years now I have been challenging my readers to solve my cases by the exercise of close observation, the application of logic to the winnowed facts, and a final correlation of the individual conclusions... Technically there are no snags.