Those who sing the praises of that fine old American institution, the town meeting, are sometimes inclined to overlook the rather untidy passions barely concealed by the surface exchange of differences. In the case of Orville Phipps, town supervisor of Van Brunt, the give and take of town meeting proves absolutely fatal.

Discussions of zoning, of the sale of liquor to minors, of the excess of the Van Brunt family's local influence, are interrupted by the burning up of the local fire house. In its ashes Orville's crispy remains are discovered the next morning. Not until considerable further violence, both overt and threatened, has taken place, does Captain Heimrich of the New York State Police, hero of many previous Lockridge thrillers, proceed to the solution of one of the knottiest cases of his long career.