Alfred Armiger has turned a beautiful old Tudor house into "The jolly barmaid", his latest roadhouse. Then he is found brutally beaten to death. There are a lot of people who want his dead, and George Felse finally makes an arrest. Dominic Felse is convinced that Kitty Norris is innocent, and takes an alternative line to his father, one that forces him, at sixteen, to measure up to some unexpected and dangerous consequences.