John Piper, insurance assessor, is confronted by the right and wrong of reconstruction when a dead woman, known to a Surrey village as Patricia Warren, turns out to be Mrs. Clara (Stanley) Watkin. Piper's search for a motive -- in her new life and in her old one -- and the stone wall of alibis, together with another killing, keep him close on the trail to an intricate unravelling. British bulldogging.