When a man is found murdered on the doorstep of a respectable house in Bedford Square Victorian Englands finest & most controversial policeman Thomas Pitt is called immediately to the scene. The only clue to the victims identity is a silver snuff box found on the body curiously at odds with the mans dishevelled appearance. Pitt soon discovers that the box & the house where the body was found belong to General Balantyne a man Pitt knows to be a pillar of the community. He is dismayed to learn that Balantyne can barely recall the evening let alone account for his movements.