When an elderly man's body is found on the steps of chambers in the Midde Temple, one of the Inns of Court, it falls to newspaperman Frank Spargo and Detective-Sergeant Rathbury to solve the crime. The murdered man was found with no money or identification, but with the address of a young barrister scrawled on a piece of paper. The Middle Temple murder case must be solved by uncovering not only the identity of the murderer, but also that of the victim.