Esther Latterley has an impeccable reputation: a nurse, a participant in the Crimean War, who saved wounded soldiers along with the legendary Florence Nightingale. Thanks to her remarkable intelligence and courage, she helped solve more than one case for William Monk, formerly a police officer and now a private detective. But someone decided that the nurse would make an excellent scapegoat - and now another patient dies from poison, and the deceased’s brooch is discovered in the girl’s bag. Now Monk must find the real killer as soon as possible or Esther will not escape the gallows...