Alex Conrad, an avid collector of detective novels, has devised a brilliant plan to cheat his ex-wife, Dinah, out of her share of the proceeds from his partner Tony’s new invention: to stage Dinah’s "accidental" murder of Tony. With his girlfriend Cathy there as a witness and a gun full of blanks, what could go wrong? Many twists and shocks follow before we come to the denouement of this ingenious thriller.