Sargeant Peavy, the newest member of the Federal Reserve Board, led a completely scrupulous life; if you don't count a string of extramarital affairs stretching back as far as anyone - including his wife - can remember. When he's found naked and dead in his Georgetown townhouse, with and ear-ring owned by his latest mistress on the floor next to him, the D.C. police force is convinced they have an easy arrest and conviction before them. Which probably would have been the case if the mistress, Jessica Dee, hadn't been a friend of Mrs Roosevelt's and an FDR informant. As the intrepid Mrs Roosevelt investigates the circumstances surrounding Peavy's murder, the reader is treated to all the historical recreation and satisfying storytelling that have become hallmarks of this series.