A housekeeper reports the disappearance of a sewing-maid from a wealthy household. She insists that the girl has been abducted. Mr Gryce and a young detective investigate. The missing young woman has a secret. But she is not the only one.

Anna Katharine Green was an American poet and novelist. She was one of the first writers of detective fiction in America and distinguished herself by writing well plotted, legally accurate stories. Green has been called "the mother of the detective novel.