When there is a violent murder at a historic Home Counties golf club, Superintendent John Lambert himself discovers the crime. For the first time in a long career, he finds himself conducting a murder inquiry among people he knows well. The victim is the Chairman of the Golf Club and a prominent local businessman, and it is soon clear that the members of the Club Committee are the chief suspects. They are all prominent members of the local community, and Lambert is saddled with a Chief Constable who is uncomfortably aware of the fact. Indeed, he seems more concerned with the media attention which inevitably focuses upon such a sensational murder than with the emerging detail of Lambert's investigation. Events move quickly in the two days following the murder. Amid further startling developments, Superintendent Lambert, supported by the deceptively stolid Sergeant Hook, moves steadily towards a solution.