Several judges in B.C. have disappeared, some under suspicious circumstances, and at least two have been murdered. But the man accused of killing Judge Whynet-Moir is being represented by Brian Pomeroy, a lawyer who has gone off his rocker. The retired Arthur Beauchamp, legend of the B.C. bar, once again has to leave his beloved Garibaldi Island to take over the case. Beauchamp has to take over the defence, cajole Pomeroy to check into a clinic, and somehow get his hands on the manuscript of a mystery novel about the murder the demented lawyer has been writing.