Lord Comstock is a barbarous newspaper tycoon with enemies in high places. His murder in the study of his country house poses a dilemma for the Home Secretary. In the hours before his death, Lord Comstock's visitors included the government Chief Whip, an Archbishop and the Assistant Commissioner for Scotland Yard. Suspicion falls upon them all and threatens the impartiality of any police investigation. Abandoning protocol, the Home Secretary invites four famous detectives to solve the case - Mrs. Adela Bradley, Sir John Saumarez, Lord Peter Wimsey and Mr. Roger Sheringham. All are different, all are plausible, all are on their own and none of them can ask a policeman.

"The Detection Club is a private association of writers of detective fiction in Great Britain, existing chiefly for the purpose of eating dinners together at suitable intervals and of talking illimitable shop. Its membership is confined to those who have written genuine detective stories (not adventure tales or 'thrillers') and election is secured by a vote of the club on recommendation by two or more members and involves the undertaking of an oath", Dorothy L. Sayers.