With some trepidation, Harriet Vane attends a reunion "gaudy" dinner at her old Oxford college, where she is welcomed by the dons, but suspects they are mostly interested in her association with Lord Peter Wimsey. A series of poison pen letters, acts of vandalism and other unpleasant events begins to plague the college and threaten the hard-won reputation of women at the university. 

Having been cleared of murder, Harriet Vane holidays in the West Country, only to find a recently-murdered body on a rock on a deserted beach. Before she can summon help, the corpse is washed away by the tide. Together with Lord Peter Wimsey she investigates and discovers a complex plot involving a wealthy widow and a gigolo who believes he is a member of the Russian aristocracy.