The girl was slim and young, with auburn hair splayed out on the pillow. Wycliffe almost believed her asleep rather than dead - until he saw her face. Although death was by strangulation, someone had smashed her face in after she was dead. She lay in a sordid room in a seedy hotel down by the docks, but her luggage, her clothes, and her make-up all indicated she was more expensive and classier than her surroundings.

Superintendent Wycliffe was officially on holiday, but the case fascinated him and he had to find out who she was, why she was lying naked in a shabby hotel room, why she had a thousand pounds hidden under some clothing, and above all, why had she been 'murdered' twice.

As he began to investigate, he found there was too much of everything about the case - too many suspects, too many motives, and too many lies.