Kate Ffolliot has returned to England after "taking a degree" in Germany. She is living with her father, a learned and aesthetic clergyman, and her sister Alice, in a small northern town, where her father has recently been appointed. Kate is pretty and popular and has received many visitors, including the social gossip Lady Naselton. Their house is near the property of Deville Court, the property of the impoverish and anti-social Bruce Deville. Nearby, in a yellow house, lives the successful writer and social crusader Mrs. Adelaide Fortress. Into this quaint scene comes Stephen Berdenstein, a millionaire adventurer recently returned from Rio de Janeiro. When he is killed, his sister, Olive Berdenstein, pursues the man whom she thinks is responsible: Philip Maltabar.