Three completely unrelated events, occurring on the same day, but in different places, create the puzzle for Tolefree's new adventure:
- A. Lord and Lady Meriden decide to sell their famous Murillo triptych;
- B. Sir Isaac Stratton cashes a check for three thousand pounds;
- C. A tabby cat finds a dark corner for the business on which she is bent.
Now the Meridens knew nothing of Sir Isaac's check; Sir Isaac was unaware of the cat's existence; and the cat was indifferent to everyone and every thing.
Because of these three events, Tolefree found himself, one night, peering down at a corpse in green pyjamas. How the corpse had got there was one problem; how and whereto it vanished forty minutes after he found it was another. "Hallucinations!" sneered the Honorable John Meriden, but Tolefree thought not, and set out to prove that he was right.