If everyone had a perfectly clear conscience, the blackmailer would have no chance'. So begins a trial in which the unfortunate judge is himself blackmailed. Unwittingly 'picked up' by a 'respectable-looking girl' the judge fins himself put into an impossible situation in which an unscrupulous blackmailer threatens his career and personal life in an attempt to steer the course of a trial to an acquittal.

Henry Cecil was born near London in 1902 and was called to the Bar in 1923. Later in 1949 he was appointed at a County Court Judge, a position he held until 1967. He used these experiences as inspiration for his work. His books are works of great comic genius with upredictable twists of plot which highlight the often absurd contradictions of the legal system. He died in 1976.