On a train with the famous Carolyn Dacres Comedy Company, on tour of New Zealand, Alleyn befriends members of the troupe.

Among them are Susan Max, an actress he met previously, Carolyn Dacres and her husband Alfred Meyer, owner of Incorporated Playhouses.

A young actress named Valerie Gaynes reports stolen money, but Alleyn does not believe the incidents are related.

Meyer plans an elaborate charade for his wife in which a jeroboam of champagne will fall down from the theater ceiling and land in a basket.

Foul play is suspected and when Alleyn investigates the contraption, he finds a small weight when a larger one should have been and was used previously.

A young actor named Courtney Broadhead seems the likeliest thief because he mysteriously was able to pay off gambling debts without explanation.

However as Alleyn explains, Mason used a series of opened doors and large props to bounce around the area undetected.

[4] The scene of the onstage killing was shot in the Theatre Royal, Christchurch, and featured Marsh herself "in a brief Hitchcockian cameo wildly applauding the cast".