When Archie Goodwin stumbles across the body of Isabel Kerr, lying in her luxurious pink bedroom with a dent in her skull, he figures she's just another fallen woman who will never rise again.

Then another of Nero Wolfe's operatives is taken in for questioning and the broad detective starts reconstructing Isabel's last steps down the primrose path.

Along the way he uncovers a very mixed bag - a freaky sister, a millionaire with cold feet and, of course, someone for whom an ashtray is a lethal weapon...