Sir Harry Lynwood and his family mount a lavish pageant at their home, Frimley Manor, to re-enact the historic visit to the house of Queen Anne, some 224 years earlier. The event is under the direction of Captain Roger Bristow, well known among his friends as a first-rate organiser of amateur theatricals (and, incidentally, formerly an officer of the Secret Service). When Bristow finds a guest dead after the pageant, he and Superintendent Kinch of the local police force each investigate along their own lines of enquiry ...