Meredith Mitchell was going to spend her week-long vacation wisely and with pleasure: go to the hairdresser, visit the dentist, treat herself to shopping. But a friend, doctor of paleontology Ursula Gretton, called from an excavation in the vicinity of Bamford and asked Meredith and her friend, Chief Inspector Alan Markby, for help. Ursula suspects that her ex-lover's wife has been murdered. Markby advised Meredith not to get involved in other people's affairs and stated that he would not investigate the suspicions. But he had to begin his duties, because the corpse of the unfortunate woman, wrapped in an old carpet, was discovered in a landfill, not far from the excavation...