Dr. Roger Lavington answers an urgent call from the housekeeper of his antisocial neighbor Maximilian von Rheinhart, a man he had never met. Dr. Lavington finds his neighbor dead, with a gun wound and while the housekeeper goes to call the police, the good doctor discovers a petrified lady hiding in the room. He allows her to escape before the police arrive, but not too long after that a woman fitting her description is found dead in a train wreck. The matter seems to be concluded, but the mystery begins to unravel after a couple of years, when Dr. Lavington goes to take care of his old friend who was involved in that same train wreck in which he lost both legs.

Annie Haynes (1865-1929) was a renowned golden age mystery writer and a contemporary of Agatha Christie, another famous crime writer, which often led to her comparison with the latter. Haynes devised complex plots in her works and combined the style of nineteenth century sensation novels with Golden Age detective fiction. In her work, the emotions of female protagonists and themes of scandal, secrets and romance often took precedence over the detective plot line. Her novels are lauded for their quick-pace action and sustaining aura of suspense till the end.