When she found the body of her beloved Uncle Jonathan, Georgina instinctively stooped to pick up the revolver, thus becoming the prime suspect. Georgina stood to inherit a large fortune when her uncle died. But her uncle had a second secret will and the beneficiary is the wide-eyed ingenue Mirrie Fields.

But there was also the puzzle of the missing fingerprint. It was the showpiece of Uncle Jonathan's collection. He had acquired it from a self-confessed murderer, who was still at large. When the old man was shot, the print had been torn from its album. Was the missing fingerprint the clue to the murderer's identity? Maud Silver is determined to find out.