Ten people, seven women and three men, visit sites in Cumbria, Argyll, Inverness and the islands of Arran and Lewis. In Cumbria Sister Veronica asserts that she has seen the flitting figure, but only one other person in the group also claims to have seen it. After an unusual version of the Truth Game is played to pass a wet evening at one of the hotels, the party begins to break up. Later on, a body is discovered in the stone circle at Callanish on Lewis and another is found in Oxfordshire, the second one a former member of the group.

Dame Beatrice Lestrange Bradley is present when each body is discovered, and it needs all her expertise to solve both mysteries.