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London- early 1950s. Marcia Beasley of St Johns Wood is discovered dead in her home- naked and covered with a coal scuttle. Detective Sergeant Greenleaf is tasked with solving the crime and bringing meaning to her gruesome death. It is a discomfiting matter- not only for the victims niece Rosy Gilchrist - eager to distance herself from her aunts fate and raffish reputation - but to all members of the deceaseds social circle. The floral Felix and acidic Cedric- awful Vera- self-enamoured artist Clovis Thistlehyde- the amiably inane Fawcett family - all- it seems- have secrets to hide and grudges to bear. Reluctantly Rosy is drawn into a mesh of intrigue- encountering those she would prefer to avoid and uncovering facts she would rather not know. Dragged from her ordered world- she is thrust into one of mad uncertainty. Who- for example- is the limping midnight visitor? Is the bibulous priest as ingenious as he seems? And will Mrs Burkiss ever yield her keys to the broom cupboard? A host of colourful and comic characters leap from the pages in their hurry to identify the murderer- unravel the mystery of Marcias life- and discover the importance of all that coal....