At Sir Hubert Handesley's country house party, five guests have gathered for the uproarious parlor game of Murder. Yet no one is laughing when the lights come up on an actual corpse, the good-looking and mysterious Charles Rankin.

Scotland Yard's Inspector Roderick Alleyn arrives to find a complete collection of alibis, a missing butler, and an intricate puzzle of betrayal and sedition in the search for the key player in this deadly game.