The events that cause Detective Inspector Faro to re-open the sensational case of The Gruesome Convent Murders (for which one murderer has already been executed) led him into a bewildering labyrinth of passions, betrayal, and greed concealed behind the lace curtains and respectable exteriors of Edinburgh society. The bizarre list of prime suspects includes a fanatical nun, an aristocratic hermit, a schoolboy, and a colleague of Faro's, all of whom might have had good reason for silencing the convent's second murder victim: the lovely, exotic, and amoral Lily Goldie.