During a serious illness in hospital, Sulby Cranfield, a Yorkshire textile tycoon, reviews his existence and decides to make a change. He is sure that his family cares little about him and that his two sons and son-in-law are incompetent to carry on his business after his death. He also makes up his mind to marry again, this time a widow, Madame Mornant, whom he greatly admires and who is head of a similar business to his own in Lyons. To have a good woman to look after him in his declining years and to merge the English and French enterprises, seems an ideal solution to his worries. As soon as he is fit again, Sulby Cranfield, without a word to his family, suddenly leaves for France to put his plans into operation. There he runs into a hornets’ nest and is found dead on the roadside near Montelimar. A hit-and-run accident…? Or murder? Chief Superintendent Littlejohn, of Scotland Yard, finds himself once again working with his old comrade, Commissaire Dorange, of the French Surute. The two friends provide the material, which finally solves the case, but the ultimate sensational climax is handled by M. Bizy-Béthencourt, the amiable, wise and compassionate examining magistrate at Valence, who tells the detectives that “I often find that the best way of solving a case of this kind is to assemble the family and let them quarrel among themselves for a time.”