The whole life of the artist Adrian Carthallow was a continuous series of scandals - and even his death turned out to be scandalous. Adrian was shot at point-blank range, and his beautiful wife Helen - the only one who was with him at the time of the tragedy in a secluded mansion on a cliff - herself confessed to the murder... It would seem that everything is clear - a typically bohemian bloody drama. However, the provincial police officer in charge of the case, Penross, is confused by something. What - he himself does not understand, and then Mordecai Tremaine comes to the rescue... The most interesting chess game of Mordecai Tremaine and Inspector Boyce is interrupted by a message about a mysterious murder that took place in the vicinity of the resort of Bridgeton. Everything about this crime is strange: and the fact that the murdered man is a local doctor - for some reason he ended up in an abandoned old house, and the fact that a revolver was found in his bag. Perhaps the doctor had enemies? But who and what is their motive? In search of answers, Tremaine and Boyce will have to shake out many skeletons from the closets of urban inhabitants...