Twentieth in the long-running mystery series with Dr Launcelot Priestley.

Lady Misterton, out for her usual drive in Windoor Great Park one chilly February afternoon, suddenly ordered her chauffeur to stop. She had forgotten her bag. Being as unreasonable and inconsiderate old lady, she coolly told Willians to walk back to Clandown Towers--three and a half miles away--to fetch it. The chauffeur departed obediently. The old lady settled down to her needlework to the accompaniment of the music from the car radio. Curious and prophetic that she should be listening to the gruesome straind of Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre. For in that car, an hour or two later, Lady Misterton was found dead.

Foul play? Well, that was a question fo Superintendent Hanslet of Scotland Yard to settle. But his inquiries led into such a perplexing tangle that he was soon forced to call upon Dr Priestley. When the criminologist enters the investigation, events takes a surprising turn towards a dramatic solution.