Ex-civil servant Robert Amiss is prompted by Baroness "Jack" Troutbeck to take the position of business manager for the conservative, intellectual English journal, the Wrangler. But Robert finds himself facing an uphill battle with the magazine's editor, Willie Lambie Crump, as he and his staff are set firmly in their ways and ideologies. But things go from bad to worse when the political editor, Henry Potbury, is found dead under odd circumstances and Crump is murdered. All of the staff becomes a suspect, and Robert must unmask the killer before they strike again.