Murder, stalking among the rare and valuable volumes of a bookshop, provides Fleming Stone with one of his most dangerous and stirring cases. Keith Ramsay decided he would have to give up his job as Philip Balfour's librarian because he was falling in love with his employer's wife, alli. But before he could act on his decision, Philip is found murdered in the backroom of Sewall's bookstore—and Keith is suspect number one. However, when police discover that a rare volume, worth one hundred thousand dollars, is missing, other people and varying motives add to the complexity of the case.