Two leading characters in this detective novel are Phlox and Marigold Carmichael, a pair of dilettante Bohemians who wish to find a Romano-British treasure trove. While digging in Hampshire, they unearth a skeleton which they show as a Romano-British exhibit. However, Dame Beatrice Lestrange Bradley is so doubtful of its origin that she has tests made and discovers the bones to be those of a person killed within the present decade. And so Miss Mitchell's famous woman detective takes on a new and exciting case.