Young Raymond Rudford,sculptor, is on trial for slitting the throat of his uncle, who had adopted and raised him after Raymond's parent's died when he was a young boy. The prosecution allows his motive was fear of being disinherited if he married his fiancé, the fair Alicia Atherton, against his uncle's wishes, and the prosecution lays a mountain of evidence against Raymond, including his razor, dragged from an artificial lake on the estate, as the murder weapon; Raymond's bloody fingerprints and footprints found at the scene of bedroom crime, and his bloody shoes, found in his cupboard and bloody monogrammed-handkerchief found under his uncle's death bed. Raymond's only defense is that he could not have committed the crime as he goes into a paroxysm of dread at the mere sight of blood, a phobia he has had ever since childhood when his dog was run over by a lorry and the dog's blood was splattered into his face. But the jury doesn't buy that and he is found guilty and sentenced to death. The fair Alicia thinks he is innocent and someone else murdered the uncle. But, if not Raymond, who? Possibly Raymond's childhood friend, the bright and chirpy Peter Bromley, who has an eye on Alicia himself; or Doctor Bristol, who likes to dabble in hypnotism...and there was a butler in the house.