Kate Farrant, chairperson of a medical charity, rings for an ambulance having been overcome by a severe gastro-intestinal disorder during the night in the basement flat of her gambling club.When she dies in hospital 10 days later, the forensic pathologist discovers that she has been poisoned. There are several people who have reason both to fear and hate the young woman and the investigation leads from the club to those who worked at the charity before Kate took it over and the school where she and her psychopathic brother were pupils ten years earlier. Only then can light be shed upon the murderer and the mystery solved.