Venetia Aldridge is a brilliant criminal lawyer who is set to take over as Head of Chambers at Pawlet Court, a fictitious London Inn of Court. Then she is found stabbed in her room, wearing an old-fashioned wig. Knowledge of where to find the wig, and the blood stored in a refrigerator ready for a private operation, indicates that the most probable culprit comes from Pawlet Court itself, where Venetia has made many enemies.