The official verdict on Hanley Aiken's death was accident, but his family and friends called it suicide. Tess Aiken, his young widow, did not believe her husband had taken his life just because they had quarreled. So now she had come to North Dobney, far out on Cape Cod, to investigate, and promptly met antagonism from their friends among the artists, winter residents and natives. Soon this reaction took on a more formidable and nerve-shaking aspect, and Tess's hitherto uneasy suspicion became a conviction that Hanley Aiken had been murdered. The clues that finally fell into the hands of Inspector Christopher McKee were ephemeral —a St. Christopher medal where it shouldn't have been, a sudden change in the weather, a frightened child's nightmare at twilight, spilled coffee on a black iron stove, a water-logged face mask, which might have been used by a child at Halloween. The journey into crime of Tess and the Inspector led them through a maze centered on Mrs. Waine, a rich, much-married art patron, and her heirs, who were painters, writers, sculptors, and a poetess. Before long a second life was taken and McKee was confronted with one of his most baffling and, at the same time, fascinating cases.