Rosamund Bellamy returns to Penmorrow to put her affairs in order—but someone has already arranged her final appointment.
The widowed property owner is staying at the Bay Hotel while preparing to sell her Church Street house and examine the accounts managed in her absence. After a hotel luncheon is delivered to the house, Rosamund dies from what appears to be her heart condition. Yet the story surrounding her last hours is wrong: Dr Margaret Verran supplied no calming tonic, made no morning visit and never advised her patient to rest.
Hotel owner Edmund Trewin and his niece Katherine follow a trail of appointments, accounts and interference. Rosamund's daughter opposed the sale. Her companion planned to leave. A contractor concealed unfinished work. Her property agent guarded the books.
With every suspect hiding a truth, Edmund and Katherine must discover who borrowed a doctor's authority—and whether the deception concealed murder.