When Her Majesty offers Dido Hoare, London's most intrepid antiquarian bookseller, the opportunity to buy her personal library in Oxford, Dido cannot believe her good fortune. It turns out to be her last bit of good luck for some time.. ""Her Majesty" is in fact the aged and rather daunting Clare Templeton Forbes, ex-lover of the famous American modernist poet Orrin Forbes. Dido doesn't understand Clare's rush to sell the books, but she knows her shop could profit nicely from them, so she goes ahead with the deal. It's then that the trouble begins.. "Things turn nasty when there is a fire at Clare's house the night she dies. Then Dido finds a valuable stolen manuscript in her car, and is arrested. Who would want Clare dead, and why? Who would want to frame Dido, and why?