Cordelia Gray owns a little private detective agency, emplying only two temporary persons plus herself. She makes go with
looking for and returning stray cats to their owners. So she is quite happy when the husband of famous actress Clarissa Lisle recruits her to elucidate a case of malevolent poison-pen letters adressed to his wife. She has to go and escort her during her stay on Courcy Island, a private island owned by
Ambrose Gorringe, a very rich man and author of one best-seller. He is setting a play in a brand new theater on his island, and Clarissa Lisle is to take a part in it. The actress is very much afraid of the letters she has been receiving for some years now and fears for her life. Sure enough, and despite Cordelia's presence, she is murdered just before the play. That leaves Cordelia in an embarrassing situation : she has failed to protect her employer and is now living on an island with a murderer. There are few enough people who are suspects : the husband Sir George, the step-son Simon, a female cousin, Ambrose Gorringe, the maid, the manservant or the cook.
The island also plays an important part in this story, it has a long history of murders ang gritty stories.
As another death occurs on the island, Cordelia is now fearing for her own life and the sanity of her mind.
The characters in this book are very complex and each one of them has got a motive for murder, they all have their own elaborate story, present and past, and secrets to conceal. Only Cordelia appears pure and innocent, but the end will shatter in a way her life and it will never again be the same.