When a storm blew away part of the crumbling masonry of the old tower at Ravenhurst Castle it revealed a skeleton, hidden for many years, which was without doubt that of the seventh earl. Few people believed that the rightful heir whose existence until then had been unknown would be found so quickly - or that he would prove to be the person that he did. But they counted without the presence of the ubiquitous Jasper Shrig, the Bow Street runner, in their sleepy Sussex village of Ravenhurst. One by one he unravelled the many mysteries which surrounded the castle and its curious inhabitants; the sullen eighth Earl, his frivolous son Viscount Hurst, the lovely Lady Clytie Moor and the dangerous Sir Humphrey Carr, his nephew. By listening to village gossip, by piecing together the few shreds of evidence which he possessed he was able to reach a solution, which events proved to be only too correct.