When John Mallathorpe, a wealthy industrialist, is killed in an accident, he is thought not to have made a will and the estate passes to his widowed sister-in-law and her children. Two years later an elderly bookseller finds the will in a book purchased from the Mallathorpe estate, which leaves the family a comparatively small bequest. He takes the will to his solicitor's office where he dies suddenly. The chief clerk on duty sees an opportunity to benefit from the contents of the will and secretes it in his pocket. As a result of this action, there follow events of fraud, blackmail and murder. A police officer, the solicitor and a young barrister work together to unravel the mystery. This is a novel from the pen of J S Fletcher, who was one of the leading writers of the "Golden Age" of detective writing.