While out collecting pond water samples early one morning, newly qualified doctor Stephen Gray chances upon a dead body in the Queen’s Wood. The body turns out to be that of an artist, Julius D’Arblay. Assisted by renowned medical jurist Dr. John Thorndyke and D’Arblay’s daughter Marion, Gray finds himself embroiled in a plot that will test his wits, endanger his life, and perhaps even lead to love.

Although narrated by earnest junior doctor Stephen Gray, the mystery of the D’Arblay case is unraveled by renowned forensic scientist Dr. John Thorndyke, protagonist of twenty-one novels and numerous short stories by R. Austin Freeman .