No sooner had she voiced her musings, sitting in private with her daughter, than her husband burst in with the evening paper. "My dear," he said, his scanty hair almost standing on end, "such dreadful news. Your aunt, my dear --"

"Selina," said Mrs. Octagon quietly, "go on. There is nothing bad I don't expect to hear about Selina. What is it?"

"She is dead!"

Detective Miles Jennings of Scotland Yard and his school chum Cuthbert Mallow face a puzzling case, for it involves family and friends, and no shortage of odd characters -- with the added puzzle that an engagement is being broken off -- for reason of the murder!