When newlyweds Sir James and Lady Cecilia Branstoke come to the aid of a new-made widow, some things don't add up about the death of her young lord husband. Worse, a man who won't state his purpose, but is obviously military, wants a carte blanche to search the dead man's library! The sheer effrontery!

Their search for answers takes the Branstokes and the widow to the white cliffs of Dover and a search for answers from Folkstone to Dover. Is this a murder, or a ruse? And if a ruse, Why?