Ted Lyte, amateur thief, has chosen an isolated and supposedly empty house on the English coast for his first robbery. But Haven House is no ordinary country home; behind its only shuttered window hides a dreadful secret. While hunting for silverware to steal, Ted stumbles upon a locked room containing a horrific sight: seven dead bodies. Detective Inspector Kendall takes on the case with the help of passing yachtsman Thomas Hazeldean and only a few cryptic clues, including a crumpled piece of paper and a portrait of a pretty young girl. The search for the house's absent owners takes Hazeldean across the Channel to Boulogne, where he finds more than one motive to stay and investigate...