Widowed Lady Rosamund spends the first tedious months of her mourning in the Lake District, where it’s safe and peaceful, and murders are exceedingly rare. Then she finds herself at a house party comprised of playwrights, poets, and actors—an immoral set of persons with whom no respectable lady should associate. Soon one of the guests is found dead, gored by the antlers of a stag’s head that used to hang on the wall.

To her surprise and unease, Gilroy McBrae is at the same party, masquerading as a footman to investigate a series of thefts. Are the thefts connected with the murder? How many people had good reason to want their unpleasant fellow guest dead? Rosie and McBrae clash over their beliefs about justice, even as they race to identify the culprit before the coroner accuses an innocent person of the crime.