In December 1909, the Rev. Josiah Peter Martins died face down in a bowl of mutton and onions, leaving his family on the brink of ruin. Eighteen-year-old Efemia Martins is forced to provide for her mother and little brother on her own and enter service at the Stapleford Hall estate. But on her very first day in the ill-fated house of Lord Stapleford, she discovers the body of a murdered man! An innate sense of justice and an almost indecent level of intelligence for a girl forces Efimia to take up the investigation of the murder herself, and the dark secrets of the Stapleford family begin to be revealed to her. Meanwhile, they propose to her, lock her in closets, force her to cut mountains of onions, accuse her of murder and threaten her with death! She can only defend herself to the last with the help of a sharp mind, a sense of humor and the main weapon of all decent girls - a piercing scream.