Horatio Leavenworth is a New York merchant whose material wealth is matched by his eminence in the community and reputation for good works. He is also the guardian of two striking nieces who share his Fifth Avenue mansion. Mary, her uncle's favorite, is to inherit his fortune at his death. As this mystery opens, that lamentable event has just occurred: Leavenworth has been shot to death, and circumstances point to one of his young wards. But is that the trail to follow? This classic mystery novel-a tribute to Anna Katharine Green's exceptional plotting and legal accuracy-was famously put to use by Yale University's law school to demonstrate the fallibility of circumstantial evidence.