In the country house of Yoksy-Old-Place lives a scientist, Professor Coram—a very sick man. He spends time in bed, then limps around the house with a cane, and at times the gardener drives him in a wheelchair through the park. A year ago he hired a secretary, Mr. Willoughby Smith, a university graduate—polite, calm, and diligent. The secretary dies in the professor’s office under circumstances that unmistakably point to murder.