This story is set in a publishing firm, the Peverell Press. Chairman, Henry Peverell has just died,; his French partner Jean-Philippe Etienne, has retired and Etienne's ruthless son Gerard has taken over as chairman and managing director. He has enemies: a discarded mistress, a humiliated author, his colleagues and threatened members of his staff. When he is found dead on the premises, his body desecrated, there is no shortage of suspects.