[4] Detective Superintendent Dalgliesh arrives to spend what he hopes will be a quiet few days at his Aunt Jane’s property in the remote maritime Suffolk hamlet of Monksmere.

Other property owners there include the widowed detective novelist Maurice Seton, drama critic Oliver Latham, magazine editor Justin Bryce, romantic novelist Celia Calthrop, the retired R. B. Sinclair - whose three distinguished novels had been published thirty years before - and the crippled Sylvia Kedge who acts as typist and helps around the house for some of these.

Others soon arrive to disturb the rural peace: Celia Calthrop's niece Elizabeth Marley, who is studying at Cambridge, and Maurice Seton's younger half-brother Digby.

Since the existence of the boat was known only to those living in Monksmere, the murder is made a matter of local investigation under the direction of Detective Inspector Reckless.

At the very end Deborah Riscoe, Dalgliesh's romantic interest in previous novels, has grown tired of him making up his mind to propose and writes to say she has accepted a job in America.